Digital Narratives of Oppression: Surveillance and Control in Detention and Devotion Depicting Taiwan During the White Terror

• Authors: Garg Anshika , Pujari Jyoti Prakash , Namboothiri Aditi Krishnan
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Fang Ray-shin, a Taiwanese teenager during the White Terror, faces a harrowing choice: expose her classmates in a forbidden book club or remain silent, a decision that highlights the pervasive surveillance of the era, where silence equates to betrayal. This moral dilemma lies at the heart of Red Candle Games’ Detention, a digital game that immerses players in the atmosphere of suspicion and distrust prevalent in Taiwan under martial law. Alongside its successor, Devotion, these games are meticulously crafted narratives that reflect the paranoia and psychological trauma caused by constant monitoring. While existing studies have explored the historical context of these games, they often overlook their engagement with Foucault’s surveillance theories presented in Discipline and punish. This study bridges this gap by analysing the games as virtual representations of Taiwan during the 1960s-80s, investigating the portrayal of historical events under authoritarian rule and the concept of ‘playable surveillance’. This paper also argues that these games challenge and reinforce players’ perceptions of agency, morality, and resistance in the face of systemic oppression.

Keywords

EN

Detention; Devotion; Discipline and punish; Michel Foucault; surveillance; White Terror

• Publisher: Univerzita sv. Cyrila a Metoda (Trnava)
• Journal: Acta Ludologica
• Year: 2024
• Volume: 7
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 64-79
• Physical description: Media and Communication, Game studies, Theory of digital games
• Document type: Article

Contributors

author

Garg Anshika

• Christ University, Department of English and Cultural Studies

author

Pujari Jyoti Prakash

• Christ University, Department of English and Cultural Studies

author

Namboothiri Aditi Krishnan

• Christ University, Department of English and Cultural