To say that games, humour, and comedy have a lot in common would be stating the obvious. The affinities between the ludic and the comic have been remarked by scholars in various fields. Wittgenstein (1980, 83e) likens a shared sense of humour to the reciprocal understanding of the rules of a game. In his book The Game of Humor (1997), Gruner sees a fundamental similarity between humour and games in a shared competitive dynamic, closely bound up with ‘winning’. From an evolutionary perspective, laughter – today associated with humour – has been a signal of play (Gervais and Wilson 2005). Moreover, the English word ‘joke’ likely shares its etymology with the Italian word ‘gioco’ for ‘game’ and ‘play’, deriving from the Latin ‘jocus’ (OED).
Despite these links, there is surprisingly little academic
work on humour and comedy in games. The existing literature has charted the
possible avenues of research. Humour has been analysed as a tool to make games
more engaging, and to contribute memorable scenes and characters (Dorman and
Biddle 2009; Fernández-Vara 2009). In-game comedy can also arise from the
self-reflective commentary on the games’ form and structure (Bonello 2015), or
constitute a part of a broader set of grotesque and carnivalesque aesthetics
(Majkowski 2015). Moreover, the joys of excessive movement, collisions, and
playful destruction link games to slapstick comedy (Švelch 2014; Hudson 2014;
Garin 2015).
While game scholars researching the topic often draw from
traditional theories of humour and comedy, comedy and humour scholars have
employed theories of games and play. Dramatic comedy has been associated with
‘timelessness’ and a lack of severe consequence (see Sypher, 1980; Garber,
2004), a space opening onto play. Quirk (2015, p. 208) has suggested that
stand-up comedy “creates a playground, in Huizinga’s sense, both physically and
ideologically, which operates in accordance with joking’s rules of challenge
and negotiation. This is both a force for societal good and a potential source
of harm.” In his classic study, Bakhtin ties his concept of the carnivalesque
with both playfulness and laughter (1984).
Apart from these largely isolated instances of
cross-pollination, there has been little dialogue between the two fields of
comedy and game studies, and a lack of scholarship that would rigorously
explore the relationship between comedy and play in relation to digital (and
non-digital) games. The seemingly obvious affinities between games, humour, and
comedy are only rarely illuminated. This volume, therefore, aims to fill this
gap, map the overlaps between games and comedy, and build a long overdue
foundation for interdisciplinary dialogue.
What we are looking for
We are currently looking for contributors of individual
chapters. We recognize the breadth and diversity of approaches to, and
contrasting or overlapping definitions of, humour, laughter, and comedy (see
for example: Milner Davis and Roach Anleu, 2018). This volume will therefore
not be limited to a single framework or approach. Instead, we embrace different
facets of that most elusive quarry – the ‘comic’ – as ‘‘this little problem,
which has a knack of baffling every effort, of slipping away and escaping only
to bob up again” (Bergson 1980, p. 61).
We welcome explorations of the applicability and limitations
of comedy- and humour-related theoretical frameworks related to digital (and
non-digital) games, as well as case studies of particular games, and research
into reception of humour in games. We also welcome contributions on the functions
of comedy and humour in games, its impact on gameplay, and its political
implications.
The possible topics include (but are not limited to):
- Rethinking the relationship between humour and play/the comic and the ludic
- Theories of humour and comedy and their applicability to games
- Videogames as vehicles of satire [as ‘serio ludere’? – Lucian]
- Irony and parody in games
- Structural analyses of humour in games
- The comic in game design
- Humour as meta-commentary of game mechanics
- Non-diegetic and paratextual humour (HUDs, menu screens, achievements, Easter Eggs)
- Slapstick, humour, and violence
- Glitches and bugs as comic events
- The comic in player experience and engagement (or disengagement)
- Humour and power in games and game cultures
- Humour in games and game culture as a tool of resistance and critique
- Collective laughter (inclusionary/exclusionary) in MMOs and other multiplayer games
- Stand-up comedy simulators
If you are interested in contributing, please send a 500
word abstract to games.comedy.book@gmail.com.
We will read through all the abstracts and invite authors of
selected abstracts to write full chapters for us. Please contact us at this
email if you have any questions.
The volume is not signed to a publisher at this point, but
we are discussing our project with several leading publishing houses. The final
title of the book will be decided in cooperation with the publisher.
Deadline for abstracts: August 31, 2019
Deadline for full chapters: March 31, 2020
Projected date of publication: 2020/2021
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario