2019
Loponen, Mika
The semiospheres of prejudice in the fantastic arts: The inherited racism of irrealia and their translation Väitöskirja
Englantilainen filologia, Helsingin yliopisto, 2019, ISBN: 978-951-51-4887-2.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Avainsanat: englanninkieliset väitöskirjat, fantasy, game studies, racism, science fiction, semiotics, transmediality
@phdthesis{Loponen2019,
title = {The semiospheres of prejudice in the fantastic arts: The inherited racism of irrealia and their translation},
author = {Mika Loponen},
url = {http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-51-4888-9},
isbn = {978-951-51-4887-2},
year = {2019},
date = {2019-01-01},
school = {Englantilainen filologia, Helsingin yliopisto},
abstract = {This study discusses the evolution of racialized concepts in the genres of the fantastic, especially fantasy, science fiction, and supernatural horror. It provides the first detailed interpretation of how such concepts are constructed and how they develop based on their interaction with the evolving cultural landscapes, thus showing how characteristics are borrowed from real world cultural stereotypes. The analysis concentrates on fantastic renderings of racialized stereotypes based on real world cultural fears. The concepts are examined both in their source cultures and through the lenses of transmediality and translation. As the fantastic arts have always been heavily transmedial in nature, the study is not limited to a certain art form, but views all media as complementary in producing concepts of the fantastic, either by adding new facets to the concepts, or by changing them on a temporal basis.
Contextualizing concepts in the fantastic arts through their linkage to the real world cultural development provides a method through which we can perceive how the concepts are built on – and preserve – racialized stereotypes of their cultures of origin. In order to do so, this study provides a framework that utilizes several approaches from cultural semiotics as well as translation studies. Furthermore, it presents a view of the evolution of the genres in specific media through case studies. The framework is applied to some well-known fantastic concepts (orcs, dwarves, goblins, and gnomes), by mapping their entry into the fantastic arts and examining how the changes in their signifying imagery have affected their allusive links to the real world stereotypes that are (intentionally or non-intentionally) portrayed through them. In addition, translational tools are applied in a case study to examine how racialized features are transported to a new cultural setting in translation.
The study argues that the inclusion of properties of racialized stereotypes from real world cultures to fantastic concepts is widespread and that especially negative racialized allusions often survive in texts of the fantastic, even after they have been perceived as offensive in the real world cultures from which they stem. It displays how racialized narratives can change when fantastic concepts inherit properties from new real world racialized stereotypes, and how inheriting signifiers from a “positive” real world racialization can affect the negative properties of fantastic concepts.},
keywords = {englanninkieliset väitöskirjat, fantasy, game studies, racism, science fiction, semiotics, transmediality},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {phdthesis}
}
This study discusses the evolution of racialized concepts in the genres of the fantastic, especially fantasy, science fiction, and supernatural horror. It provides the first detailed interpretation of how such concepts are constructed and how they develop based on their interaction with the evolving cultural landscapes, thus showing how characteristics are borrowed from real world cultural stereotypes. The analysis concentrates on fantastic renderings of racialized stereotypes based on real world cultural fears. The concepts are examined both in their source cultures and through the lenses of transmediality and translation. As the fantastic arts have always been heavily transmedial in nature, the study is not limited to a certain art form, but views all media as complementary in producing concepts of the fantastic, either by adding new facets to the concepts, or by changing them on a temporal basis.
Contextualizing concepts in the fantastic arts through their linkage to the real world cultural development provides a method through which we can perceive how the concepts are built on – and preserve – racialized stereotypes of their cultures of origin. In order to do so, this study provides a framework that utilizes several approaches from cultural semiotics as well as translation studies. Furthermore, it presents a view of the evolution of the genres in specific media through case studies. The framework is applied to some well-known fantastic concepts (orcs, dwarves, goblins, and gnomes), by mapping their entry into the fantastic arts and examining how the changes in their signifying imagery have affected their allusive links to the real world stereotypes that are (intentionally or non-intentionally) portrayed through them. In addition, translational tools are applied in a case study to examine how racialized features are transported to a new cultural setting in translation.
The study argues that the inclusion of properties of racialized stereotypes from real world cultures to fantastic concepts is widespread and that especially negative racialized allusions often survive in texts of the fantastic, even after they have been perceived as offensive in the real world cultures from which they stem. It displays how racialized narratives can change when fantastic concepts inherit properties from new real world racialized stereotypes, and how inheriting signifiers from a “positive” real world racialization can affect the negative properties of fantastic concepts.
Contextualizing concepts in the fantastic arts through their linkage to the real world cultural development provides a method through which we can perceive how the concepts are built on – and preserve – racialized stereotypes of their cultures of origin. In order to do so, this study provides a framework that utilizes several approaches from cultural semiotics as well as translation studies. Furthermore, it presents a view of the evolution of the genres in specific media through case studies. The framework is applied to some well-known fantastic concepts (orcs, dwarves, goblins, and gnomes), by mapping their entry into the fantastic arts and examining how the changes in their signifying imagery have affected their allusive links to the real world stereotypes that are (intentionally or non-intentionally) portrayed through them. In addition, translational tools are applied in a case study to examine how racialized features are transported to a new cultural setting in translation.
The study argues that the inclusion of properties of racialized stereotypes from real world cultures to fantastic concepts is widespread and that especially negative racialized allusions often survive in texts of the fantastic, even after they have been perceived as offensive in the real world cultures from which they stem. It displays how racialized narratives can change when fantastic concepts inherit properties from new real world racialized stereotypes, and how inheriting signifiers from a “positive” real world racialization can affect the negative properties of fantastic concepts.
2018
Kultima, Annakaisa
Game design praxiology Väitöskirja
Informaatiotutkimus ja interaktiivinen media, Tampereen yliopisto, 2018, ISBN: 978-952-03-0742-4.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Avainsanat: creativity, englanninkieliset väitöskirjat, game design, game industry, game studies, ideation
@phdthesis{Kultima2018,
title = {Game design praxiology},
author = {Annakaisa Kultima},
url = {https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-03-0742-4},
isbn = {978-952-03-0742-4},
year = {2018},
date = {2018-01-01},
school = {Informaatiotutkimus ja interaktiivinen media, Tampereen yliopisto},
abstract = {This dissertation is positioned on the multidiscipline of game studies. It presents the findings of a ten-year study of game developers and the contexts of their creative practices. As a multidisciplinary enquiry, this study draws from the theoretical and methodological traditions of creativity studies, management studies, computer science, and design research to supplement the young discipline of game studies. However, studying game developers is not a typical focus for the field of academic game research. The dissertation critically comments on the tradition of game studies for its ontological narrowness and the neglect of the relevance of the creator in the quest for understanding the phenomenon of games and play.
Altogether, this work draws from nineteen sub-studies to explore game development as experienced, highlighting issues that frame creation practices. The study is exploratory utilising multiple methods capturing the voices and realities of the creators. The overview of the study is ethnographically informed: the data collection covers an extensive period in games from 2006 to 2016, bridging the sub-studies with field work and digital ethnography at multiple industry events around the globe and social media platforms.
The findings are distilled into five claims: 1) Game design is timely and particular, 2) Game design is value pluralistic, 3) Game design process is opportunistic, 4) Game design process is a plethora of ideas, and 5) Game design practice is natured and nurtured by the surrounding ecosystem. These theses form the grounding of game design praxiology, which in this work is defined as a pursuit of studying games as created.
This dissertation takes several levels of game developers’ realities and experiences into consideration. Firstly, it addresses the changing environment and recent trends in the game industry painting a picture of a challenging field of action. Such an environment requires flexibility and adaptation from the creators making game development a constant learning process. One of the highlighted trends is the casual turn in games. This normalisation of digital play has had a wide impact on the ways games are created.
Secondly, this work explores the multitude of game design, and discusses how games can be many and always affected by the values and appreciations of their respective creators. The notion of game design value is utilised in communicating the pluralistic nature of game design. Game design cannot be reduced to a single value, even though making a single game can be dominated by one.
Thirdly, the dissertation addresses the iterative nature of game development. Iteration as a core concept within game development is elaborated in this work into a larger notion of opportunism in design work. Opportunistic attitudes are visible on multiple levels of game work, and embraced as well as amplified within game creation cultures. Game developers do not only need to react to the changes within the industry, but take the opportunities that might come about within the development processes.
A big part of the study is revolving around the notion of a game idea. The level of ideas is more accessible to the outsiders of the creation cultures, but often misunderstood. The creative process of making games is collaborative and social, requiring creative input from several professions. The game innovation processes are not solely based on single overarching game ideas, but rather on various idea acts. This forms the fourth focus point for the dissertation.
Lastly, the work highlights how the larger ecosystem impacts on the game development practices. For the past decade, the game industry has expanded into a wide ecosystem of diverse actors and professions. This varying network of actors, including non-commercial actors, has its own role in nurturing the developments of the field. As one example, the phenomenon of the game jams is highlighted exposing a widely spread movement of creative communities emphasising diversity, co-creativity, opportunism, and prototyping cultures impacting a whole generation of game developers. The work calls for further research within game design praxiology: as long as game making is not a part of the basic education in the same way as writing or drawing, games are in danger of remaining misunderstood as a wide and vibrant form of art and practise.},
keywords = {creativity, englanninkieliset väitöskirjat, game design, game industry, game studies, ideation},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {phdthesis}
}
This dissertation is positioned on the multidiscipline of game studies. It presents the findings of a ten-year study of game developers and the contexts of their creative practices. As a multidisciplinary enquiry, this study draws from the theoretical and methodological traditions of creativity studies, management studies, computer science, and design research to supplement the young discipline of game studies. However, studying game developers is not a typical focus for the field of academic game research. The dissertation critically comments on the tradition of game studies for its ontological narrowness and the neglect of the relevance of the creator in the quest for understanding the phenomenon of games and play.
Altogether, this work draws from nineteen sub-studies to explore game development as experienced, highlighting issues that frame creation practices. The study is exploratory utilising multiple methods capturing the voices and realities of the creators. The overview of the study is ethnographically informed: the data collection covers an extensive period in games from 2006 to 2016, bridging the sub-studies with field work and digital ethnography at multiple industry events around the globe and social media platforms.
The findings are distilled into five claims: 1) Game design is timely and particular, 2) Game design is value pluralistic, 3) Game design process is opportunistic, 4) Game design process is a plethora of ideas, and 5) Game design practice is natured and nurtured by the surrounding ecosystem. These theses form the grounding of game design praxiology, which in this work is defined as a pursuit of studying games as created.
This dissertation takes several levels of game developers’ realities and experiences into consideration. Firstly, it addresses the changing environment and recent trends in the game industry painting a picture of a challenging field of action. Such an environment requires flexibility and adaptation from the creators making game development a constant learning process. One of the highlighted trends is the casual turn in games. This normalisation of digital play has had a wide impact on the ways games are created.
Secondly, this work explores the multitude of game design, and discusses how games can be many and always affected by the values and appreciations of their respective creators. The notion of game design value is utilised in communicating the pluralistic nature of game design. Game design cannot be reduced to a single value, even though making a single game can be dominated by one.
Thirdly, the dissertation addresses the iterative nature of game development. Iteration as a core concept within game development is elaborated in this work into a larger notion of opportunism in design work. Opportunistic attitudes are visible on multiple levels of game work, and embraced as well as amplified within game creation cultures. Game developers do not only need to react to the changes within the industry, but take the opportunities that might come about within the development processes.
A big part of the study is revolving around the notion of a game idea. The level of ideas is more accessible to the outsiders of the creation cultures, but often misunderstood. The creative process of making games is collaborative and social, requiring creative input from several professions. The game innovation processes are not solely based on single overarching game ideas, but rather on various idea acts. This forms the fourth focus point for the dissertation.
Lastly, the work highlights how the larger ecosystem impacts on the game development practices. For the past decade, the game industry has expanded into a wide ecosystem of diverse actors and professions. This varying network of actors, including non-commercial actors, has its own role in nurturing the developments of the field. As one example, the phenomenon of the game jams is highlighted exposing a widely spread movement of creative communities emphasising diversity, co-creativity, opportunism, and prototyping cultures impacting a whole generation of game developers. The work calls for further research within game design praxiology: as long as game making is not a part of the basic education in the same way as writing or drawing, games are in danger of remaining misunderstood as a wide and vibrant form of art and practise.
Altogether, this work draws from nineteen sub-studies to explore game development as experienced, highlighting issues that frame creation practices. The study is exploratory utilising multiple methods capturing the voices and realities of the creators. The overview of the study is ethnographically informed: the data collection covers an extensive period in games from 2006 to 2016, bridging the sub-studies with field work and digital ethnography at multiple industry events around the globe and social media platforms.
The findings are distilled into five claims: 1) Game design is timely and particular, 2) Game design is value pluralistic, 3) Game design process is opportunistic, 4) Game design process is a plethora of ideas, and 5) Game design practice is natured and nurtured by the surrounding ecosystem. These theses form the grounding of game design praxiology, which in this work is defined as a pursuit of studying games as created.
This dissertation takes several levels of game developers’ realities and experiences into consideration. Firstly, it addresses the changing environment and recent trends in the game industry painting a picture of a challenging field of action. Such an environment requires flexibility and adaptation from the creators making game development a constant learning process. One of the highlighted trends is the casual turn in games. This normalisation of digital play has had a wide impact on the ways games are created.
Secondly, this work explores the multitude of game design, and discusses how games can be many and always affected by the values and appreciations of their respective creators. The notion of game design value is utilised in communicating the pluralistic nature of game design. Game design cannot be reduced to a single value, even though making a single game can be dominated by one.
Thirdly, the dissertation addresses the iterative nature of game development. Iteration as a core concept within game development is elaborated in this work into a larger notion of opportunism in design work. Opportunistic attitudes are visible on multiple levels of game work, and embraced as well as amplified within game creation cultures. Game developers do not only need to react to the changes within the industry, but take the opportunities that might come about within the development processes.
A big part of the study is revolving around the notion of a game idea. The level of ideas is more accessible to the outsiders of the creation cultures, but often misunderstood. The creative process of making games is collaborative and social, requiring creative input from several professions. The game innovation processes are not solely based on single overarching game ideas, but rather on various idea acts. This forms the fourth focus point for the dissertation.
Lastly, the work highlights how the larger ecosystem impacts on the game development practices. For the past decade, the game industry has expanded into a wide ecosystem of diverse actors and professions. This varying network of actors, including non-commercial actors, has its own role in nurturing the developments of the field. As one example, the phenomenon of the game jams is highlighted exposing a widely spread movement of creative communities emphasising diversity, co-creativity, opportunism, and prototyping cultures impacting a whole generation of game developers. The work calls for further research within game design praxiology: as long as game making is not a part of the basic education in the same way as writing or drawing, games are in danger of remaining misunderstood as a wide and vibrant form of art and practise.
2017
Pasanen, Tero
Beyond the pale: Gaming controversies and moral panics as rites of passage Väitöskirja
Digitaalinen kulttuuri, Jyväskylän yliopisto, 2017, ISBN: 978-951-39-7152-6.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Avainsanat: digital games, englanninkieliset väitöskirjat, game studies, game violence, gaming controversy, gaming culture, moral panic
@phdthesis{Pasanen2017,
title = {Beyond the pale: Gaming controversies and moral panics as rites of passage},
author = {Tero Pasanen},
url = {http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-39-7152-6},
isbn = {978-951-39-7152-6},
year = {2017},
date = {2017-01-01},
school = {Digitaalinen kulttuuri, Jyväskylän yliopisto},
abstract = {Throughout the history of Western popular culture, new emerging forms of media have been perceived as threats to social norms, societal order and moral foundations. The present compilation dissertation situates the medium of digital games into this centuries-old continuum. This study contents that controversies and moral panics that originate from the aforementioned concerns should be perceived as cultural rites of passage for new media, which indicate their transition from one state into another, from periphery into mainstream. This study demonstrates that gaming controversies and moral panics are rarely situational or random events. Rather, they are manufactured through social interaction by individuals and interest groups, driven by various sociopolitical motives. These rhetors have created a host of discourse units, which are used to construct multifaceted narratives and ontological claims that shape the social reality of digital games. The thesis also explores several sociocultural factors that are generally shared by gaming controversies and moral panics. Furthermore, the dissertation maps the cultural evolution of these socially constructed events. Albeit the classic controversial themes of violence, crime and sex still generate social concerns, these incidents have evolved from mere representation-, content- or effects-based contentions into broader cultural discussions that deal with more comprehensive societal issues. Controversies and panics are products of their zeitgeist and surrounding culture. The study also examines moral and cultural boundaries that inhibit the scope of expression of digital games. These implicit restrictions demonstrate that the new societal status of the medium is still being negotiated. Lastly, the medium-specific qualities of gaming controversies and panics are analysed.},
keywords = {digital games, englanninkieliset väitöskirjat, game studies, game violence, gaming controversy, gaming culture, moral panic},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {phdthesis}
}
Throughout the history of Western popular culture, new emerging forms of media have been perceived as threats to social norms, societal order and moral foundations. The present compilation dissertation situates the medium of digital games into this centuries-old continuum. This study contents that controversies and moral panics that originate from the aforementioned concerns should be perceived as cultural rites of passage for new media, which indicate their transition from one state into another, from periphery into mainstream. This study demonstrates that gaming controversies and moral panics are rarely situational or random events. Rather, they are manufactured through social interaction by individuals and interest groups, driven by various sociopolitical motives. These rhetors have created a host of discourse units, which are used to construct multifaceted narratives and ontological claims that shape the social reality of digital games. The thesis also explores several sociocultural factors that are generally shared by gaming controversies and moral panics. Furthermore, the dissertation maps the cultural evolution of these socially constructed events. Albeit the classic controversial themes of violence, crime and sex still generate social concerns, these incidents have evolved from mere representation-, content- or effects-based contentions into broader cultural discussions that deal with more comprehensive societal issues. Controversies and panics are products of their zeitgeist and surrounding culture. The study also examines moral and cultural boundaries that inhibit the scope of expression of digital games. These implicit restrictions demonstrate that the new societal status of the medium is still being negotiated. Lastly, the medium-specific qualities of gaming controversies and panics are analysed.
2015
Arjoranta, Jonne
Real-time hermeneutics: Meaning-making in ludonarrative digital games Väitöskirja
Digitaalinen kulttuuri, Jyväskylän yliopisto, 2015, ISBN: 978-951-39-6164-0.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Avainsanat: computer games, definition, digital games, englanninkieliset väitöskirjat, Gadamer, game studies, Hans-Georg, hermeneutics, language-games, ludonarrative, Ludwig, meaning, narratology, role-playing games, sociology of language and religion, videogames, Wittgenstein
@phdthesis{Arjoranta2015,
title = {Real-time hermeneutics: Meaning-making in ludonarrative digital games},
author = {Jonne Arjoranta},
url = {http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-39-6164-0},
isbn = {978-951-39-6164-0},
year = {2015},
date = {2015-01-01},
school = {Digitaalinen kulttuuri, Jyväskylän yliopisto},
abstract = {Digital games are a relatively new medium. While they have been around for over half a century, they only became a major part of the culture relatively late. Like every other medium before, games also have struggled to find an expressive language of their own. Some of the expressive styles of other media are still relevant for games, but new ones have to be created specifically for videogames.
This dissertation is a study of how ludonarrative videogames, videogames that combine game elements with narrative elements, express and convey meaning. This is done as part of game studies, a multidisciplinary approach to studying games. The purpose is twofold: to build a foundation for better understanding of meaning-making in games, and to provide game designers with tools for analyzing issues related to meaning.
This study uses philosophical tools to analyze meaning in games. The philosophical hermeneutics of Hans-Georg Gadamer is used to compare the meaning-making in games to the interpretation of works of art. The theory of the interpretive process is based on the idea of the hermeneutic circle. Wittgenstein’s concept of language-games is used in examining how games should be defined and how their relations to each other should be understood. These philosophical methods are combined with the study of procedurality, narrativity and players.
This study shows that ludonarrative games are procedural systems that are interpreted both during gameplay and as a part of the surrounding cultural context. The result of this interpretation is neither predetermined by the game designer nor fixed during gameplay, but potentially open for endless reinterpretation as players interact with the game in new ways and as the cultural context changes. In order to convey meaning, ludonarrative games can borrow expressive tools from other media, for example by using perspective in the way it is used in cinema.
Additionally, this study provides guidelines for designing meaning. It is shown how meaning can be used as a game mechanic, and how games contain unique ways of expressing things that would be hard to convey in other media.},
keywords = {computer games, definition, digital games, englanninkieliset väitöskirjat, Gadamer, game studies, Hans-Georg, hermeneutics, language-games, ludonarrative, Ludwig, meaning, narratology, role-playing games, sociology of language and religion, videogames, Wittgenstein},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {phdthesis}
}
Digital games are a relatively new medium. While they have been around for over half a century, they only became a major part of the culture relatively late. Like every other medium before, games also have struggled to find an expressive language of their own. Some of the expressive styles of other media are still relevant for games, but new ones have to be created specifically for videogames.
This dissertation is a study of how ludonarrative videogames, videogames that combine game elements with narrative elements, express and convey meaning. This is done as part of game studies, a multidisciplinary approach to studying games. The purpose is twofold: to build a foundation for better understanding of meaning-making in games, and to provide game designers with tools for analyzing issues related to meaning.
This study uses philosophical tools to analyze meaning in games. The philosophical hermeneutics of Hans-Georg Gadamer is used to compare the meaning-making in games to the interpretation of works of art. The theory of the interpretive process is based on the idea of the hermeneutic circle. Wittgenstein’s concept of language-games is used in examining how games should be defined and how their relations to each other should be understood. These philosophical methods are combined with the study of procedurality, narrativity and players.
This study shows that ludonarrative games are procedural systems that are interpreted both during gameplay and as a part of the surrounding cultural context. The result of this interpretation is neither predetermined by the game designer nor fixed during gameplay, but potentially open for endless reinterpretation as players interact with the game in new ways and as the cultural context changes. In order to convey meaning, ludonarrative games can borrow expressive tools from other media, for example by using perspective in the way it is used in cinema.
Additionally, this study provides guidelines for designing meaning. It is shown how meaning can be used as a game mechanic, and how games contain unique ways of expressing things that would be hard to convey in other media.
This dissertation is a study of how ludonarrative videogames, videogames that combine game elements with narrative elements, express and convey meaning. This is done as part of game studies, a multidisciplinary approach to studying games. The purpose is twofold: to build a foundation for better understanding of meaning-making in games, and to provide game designers with tools for analyzing issues related to meaning.
This study uses philosophical tools to analyze meaning in games. The philosophical hermeneutics of Hans-Georg Gadamer is used to compare the meaning-making in games to the interpretation of works of art. The theory of the interpretive process is based on the idea of the hermeneutic circle. Wittgenstein’s concept of language-games is used in examining how games should be defined and how their relations to each other should be understood. These philosophical methods are combined with the study of procedurality, narrativity and players.
This study shows that ludonarrative games are procedural systems that are interpreted both during gameplay and as a part of the surrounding cultural context. The result of this interpretation is neither predetermined by the game designer nor fixed during gameplay, but potentially open for endless reinterpretation as players interact with the game in new ways and as the cultural context changes. In order to convey meaning, ludonarrative games can borrow expressive tools from other media, for example by using perspective in the way it is used in cinema.
Additionally, this study provides guidelines for designing meaning. It is shown how meaning can be used as a game mechanic, and how games contain unique ways of expressing things that would be hard to convey in other media.
2009
Eskelinen, Markku
Travels in cybertextuality: The challenge of ergodic literature and ludology to literary theory Väitöskirja
Jyväskylän yliopisto, digitaalinen kulttuuri, 2009, ISBN: 978-951-39-3653-2.
Abstract | BibTeX | Avainsanat: cybertext theory, englanninkieliset väitöskirjat, ergodic literature, game studies, literary theory, ludology, narratology, transmediality
@phdthesis{Eskelinen2009,
title = {Travels in cybertextuality: The challenge of ergodic literature and ludology to literary theory},
author = {Markku Eskelinen},
isbn = {978-951-39-3653-2},
year = {2009},
date = {2009-01-01},
school = {Jyväskylän yliopisto, digitaalinen kulttuuri},
abstract = {The dissertation’s main point of departure is the clash between explicit and implicit presuppositions, conceptualisations and generalisations in print-oriented literary theoretical paradigms and a plenitude of empirically verifiable anomalies and counter-examples to them found in digital and ergodic works of literature. The behaviour of these counter-examples is explained by cybertext theory that addresses the often neglected issue of the variety of literary media. Both the empirical counter-examples and the empirically verifiable differences in the behaviour of literary media allow us to expand and modify literary theories to suit not just one traditionally privileged media position but all of them. Therefore, in the first half of the dissertation, literary theory and narratology are viewed and modified from the perspective of slightly revised cybertext theory. In this process theories of ergodic and non-ergodic literature are integrated more closely and several so far non-theorized ways of manipulating narrative time, regulating narrative information, and generating narrative instances are located and theorized. In the second half of the dissertation, the role of cybertext theory and the position of ergodic literature are reversed as they are viewed from the perspectives provided by ludology and game ontology. This is necessary to better situate ergodic literature in the continuum of other ergodic phenomena and between interpretative and dominantly configurative practices. To this end a provisional and formal paradigm of ludology is first constructed and synthesized from previous ludological research and then applied to newer forms and genres of ergodic literature such as textual instruments.},
keywords = {cybertext theory, englanninkieliset väitöskirjat, ergodic literature, game studies, literary theory, ludology, narratology, transmediality},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {phdthesis}
}
The dissertation’s main point of departure is the clash between explicit and implicit presuppositions, conceptualisations and generalisations in print-oriented literary theoretical paradigms and a plenitude of empirically verifiable anomalies and counter-examples to them found in digital and ergodic works of literature. The behaviour of these counter-examples is explained by cybertext theory that addresses the often neglected issue of the variety of literary media. Both the empirical counter-examples and the empirically verifiable differences in the behaviour of literary media allow us to expand and modify literary theories to suit not just one traditionally privileged media position but all of them. Therefore, in the first half of the dissertation, literary theory and narratology are viewed and modified from the perspective of slightly revised cybertext theory. In this process theories of ergodic and non-ergodic literature are integrated more closely and several so far non-theorized ways of manipulating narrative time, regulating narrative information, and generating narrative instances are located and theorized. In the second half of the dissertation, the role of cybertext theory and the position of ergodic literature are reversed as they are viewed from the perspectives provided by ludology and game ontology. This is necessary to better situate ergodic literature in the continuum of other ergodic phenomena and between interpretative and dominantly configurative practices. To this end a provisional and formal paradigm of ludology is first constructed and synthesized from previous ludological research and then applied to newer forms and genres of ergodic literature such as textual instruments.