Week One: Intro to Narrative Studies

• Texts:
  • Gordon, Andrew, “Star Wars: A Myth for Our Time” (1978)
  • Kudler, David, “What is Reading?” (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-kudler/reading-practices_b_2708764.html)
  • Malby, F.C. “Narrative Arc: Shaping Your Story” (https://fcmalby.wordpress.com/2014/05/14/narrative-arc-shaping-your-story/)
  • Bizzochi, Jim, “Games and Narrative: An Analytical Framework” (http://journals.sfu.ca/loading/index.php/loading/article/viewArticle/)

 

Week Two: Narrative and Video Games

• Texts:
  • Device 6 (Walkthrough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbXxADJWZpA)
  • Orland, Kyle, “Jump the Void: Confronting Existential Dread Through Super Mario Maker” (http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/09/jump-the-void-confronting-existential-dread-through-super-mario-maker/)
  • Feminist Frequency, “Damsel in Distress: Part 1” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6p5AZp7r_Q)
  • Feminist Frequency, “Dansel in Distress: Part 2” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toa_vH6xGqs)

 

Week Three: Video Game Analysis

• Texts:
  • That Dragon, Cancer (Walkthrough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZkU5gB2bNc)
  • Vosmeer, Mirjam, and Ben Schouten, “Interactive Cinema: Engagement and Interaction”
  • Tanz, Jason, “A Father, a Dying Son, and the Quest to Make the Most Profound Videogame Ever” (https://www.wired.com/2016/01/that-dragon-cancer/)
  • McGonical, Jane, “Jane the Concussion Slayer” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZztLac0Q1EI)

 

Week Four: Visual Novels

• Texts:
  • Gone Home (Walkthrough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ak4wU8Gp2RQ)
  • Sloan, Robin J. S., “Videogames as Remediated Memories: Commodified Nostalgia and Hyperreality in Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon and Gone Home”
  • Bacon, Jen, “Getting the Story Straight: Coming Out Narratives and the Possibility of a Cultural Rhetoric”
  • Mirk, Sarah, “Popaganda Episode: Riot Grrrl Revisited,” (https://bitchmedia.org/post/popaganda-episode-riot-grrrl-revisited)

 

Week Five: World Building

• Texts:
  • Dear Esther (Walkthrough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVicEudmmA4)
  • Denby, Lewis, “The Story of Dear Esther” (http://www.pcgamer.com/the-story-of-dear-esther/)
  • Anders, Charlie Jane, “7 Deadly Sins of World Building” (http://io9.gizmodo.com/7-deadly-sins-of-worldbuilding-998817537)
  • Bloom, Sandra L., “Trauma Theory Abbreviated,” (http://iheartenglish.pbworks.com/f/Trauma+Theory+Explained+14+pages.pdf)

 

Week Six: Player Agency

• Texts:
  • Lifeline (Walkthrough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNYbDBCOijI)
  • Zimmerman, Eric, “Narrative, Interactivity, Play and Games: Four Naughty Concepts in Need of Discipline,” (http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.457.8495&rep=rep1&type=pdf)
  • Semuels, Alana, “The Perils of Choose Your Own Adventure Books,” (http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/04/the-perils-of-choose-your-own-adventure/480123/)
  • Packard, Andrew, Hyperspace

 

Week Seven: Perspective

• Texts:
  • Blackbar (Review: http://www.148apps.com/news/blackbar-developer-uncensored-revealing-interview/)
  • Bradbury, Ray, Fahrenheit 451
  • Vargas, José Antonio, “Shock, Anger Over Columbine Video Game,” (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/19/AR2006051901979.html)
  • Jensen, K. Thor, “11 Video Games That Got Banned and Why,” (http://www.geek.com/games/11-video-games-that-got-banned-and-why-1645406/)

 

Week Eight: Book to Video Game Adaptations

• Texts:
  • “Moon-Face,” in iLondon
  • London, Jack, “Moon-Face: A Story of Moral Antipathy,” (http://london.sonoma.edu/writings/MoonFace/moonface.html)
  • Keating, Lauren, “facebook twitter reddit Comment Immerse Yourself Into The Work Of The Legendary Jack London With The Interactive iLondon App,” (http://www.techtimes.com/articles/179915/20160929/immerse-yourself-work-legendary-jack-london-interactive-ilondon-app.htm)
  • Johanna Drucker, “The Virtual Codex from Page Space to E-Space”

 

Week Nine: Integrating Virtual/Reality

• Texts:
  • Year Walk (Walkthrough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlTnvC7FHsA)
  • Kuusela, Tommy, “He Met His Own Funeral Procession”: The Year Walk Ritual in Swedish Folk Tradition,” (http://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/42377366/FBTS_Kuusela_year_walk_3_1.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJ56TQJRTWSMTNPEA&Expires=1479329480&Signature=v205Nfan6eZGBprJbhztU0FeO2k%3D&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DHe_met_his_own_funeral_procession_The_Y.pdf)
  • De Certeau, Michele, “Walking in the City,” (http://faculty.georgetown.edu/irvinem/theory/DeCerteau-Practice-Excerpts.pdf)
  • Illera, José, and Mónica Kaechele, “Digital Literacy and Activity Systems in Adolescents”

 

Week Ten: Can Video Games Be Literature?

• Texts:
  • Passage (Walkthrough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3o0HFXPfco)
  • The Stanley Parable (Walkthrough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kl5Jp66xyd4)
  • Sisario, Ben, Alexandra Alter, and Sewell Chan, “Bob Dylan Wins Nobel Prize, Redefining Boundaries of Literature,” (http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/14/arts/music/bob-dylan-nobel-prize-literature.html)
  • Alderman, Naomi, “The First Great Works of Digital Literature are Already Being Written,” (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/oct/13/video-games-digital-storytelling-naomi-alderman)
  • Phillips, LaTricia, “Interactive Media—the Next Literature?”