Admission requirements
-
Description
An introduction into the field of video games as a cultural practice. How do video games change our understanding of human identity and agency? How do they contribute to the (critical) debate on the nature of contemporary culture? We will consider video games through the lens of film and video studies, art history, cultural studies and literary theory. This will allow us to understand different dimensions of video games, but it will also bring out the newness of this new set of media. At the same time, we will explore how games change our understanding of earlier art forms, and earlier ways of studying art. In addition to this inter-medial and interdisciplinary exploration of the new medium, this introductory course will offer a history of video games and game studies. In the introduction and the following courses we will discuss work by o.a. Aarseth, Bateson, Bolter, Caillois, Chun, Flusser, Galloway, Haraway, Hayles, Huizinga, Jenkins, Juul, Kittler, Manovitch, McKenzie Wark, Penley, Schechner, Wiener, and others.
Course objectives
After this course, students have obtained
a general overview of the history of video games and game studies;
insight in the adequacies and inadequacies of the theoretical approaches developed in relation to earlier media (literature, visual art, film, video) for the analysis of video games;
insight in the older and newly developed theoretical approaches that are necessary to understand the different cultural functions of the (range of) media of video games (as play, narrative medium, educational tool);
knowledge of the main concepts and debates in the field where game studies and cultural analysis meet.
Timetable
Mode of instruction
Lecture.
Assessment method
Midterm exam (30%): week 43
Final exam (70%): January 7
Resit: January 28 ### Blackboard
Blackboard will be used to provide students with additional information/reading material
Reading list
The reading list will be announced on Blackboard. Short essays that are not available on internet will be placed on Blackboard, longer texts will be available on the “werkgroepenplank” (working group shelves) in the library.
Registration
Students should register through uSis. Exchange students cannot register through uSis, but must see the director of studies and register with her. If you have any questions, please contact the departmental office, tel. 071 5272251 or mail: secrlw@hum.leidenuniv.nl.
Contact information
Coordinator Ms I.Hoving
Remarks
For more information van de opleiding Film- en literatuurwetenschap