Expressions of Postmodernism Within the Dimension of Digital Games
Abstract
A specific type of society or historical period is usually determined by characteristic kinds of technology and corresponding forms of media contents that shape the public discourse and reflect both collective social experience and individual lifestyles. Given the preferred kinds of media products and media entertainment forms, contemporary society is terminologically denoted as “postmodern” (or “late modern”), largely due to the obvious expansion of gaming technologies and the Internet. Digital games and virtual gaming environments have become prominent forms of media entertainment, especially in the case of children, teenagers and young adults. The fact we cannot forget to mention is that every emerging societal model reflects or rather revisits and reshapes at least some of typical cultural elements and means of expression known from previous cultural epochs (for instance, digital games production draws inspiration and creation principles from modernism, classicism and other art or philosophical movements). These aspects are either recreated in identical ways or modified in order to include some of the already known features and consequently shape their own prominent characteristics. Particularities of the current postmodern (or late modern) society and its products are thus at the centre of our attention. The main objective of the study is to reflect on the presence of specific traits of postmodernism in the dimension of digital games. To reach the given goal, we mainly apply logical-conceptual methods of textual analysis, while the issue of mapping the characteristics of late modern culture in relation to digital gaming products is subject to a discourse analysis. Defining the basic terms such as “postmodernity” or “postmodernism” and introducing the elementary concepts related to this cultural form will help us to achieve the primary objective. The presented theoretical premises thus become adequate fundamentals for clarifying the presence of typical features of postmodern culture in both the formal design and narrative structure of digital games.
Key words
digital game, eclecticism, hybridisation of elements, parody, postmodernism, postmodernity, quoting, seriality
KVETANOVÁ, Z., RADOŠINSKÁ, J.,: Expressions of Postmodernism Within the Dimension of Digital Games, In European Journal of Media, Art and Photography, 2020, Vol. 8, No. 1, p. 84-96, ISSN 1339-4940.