The essay, in the process of making its meta-critical point, reviews the collection Co-memorative essays on Herman Melville's ‘Bartleby the scriverner’ edited by Janusz Semrau (2009). The collection was published almost simultaneously with the new Polish translation of Melville's story, published as a companion volume with Gilles Deleuze's and Giorgio Agamben's pertinent essays (Melville 2009). There follows a wave of interest among Polish critics, which amounts to a new, local Bartleby industry (Czaplińki 2009; Jankowicz 2009; Kapela 2010). This review is inspired by one important example, a lecture delivered on March 24th, at the Department of Polish Studies of Poznań's Adam Mickiewicz University, in which one of the preeminent Polish literary critics presented the ‘melancholic vampire’, the predatory writer, the walking death that lingers, does not want to go, stalks, and sucks out the life of his friends and admirers. Although the speech was primarily about Arthur Miller, Bartleby loomed (stalked) behind, until he surfaced, with a reference to the new Polish translation.
Izabela Tomczak and Paweł StachuraAdam Mickiewicz University in PoznańPolandShaping the Avatar Identity in Computer Games A Study in Game Adaptations of Henry David Thoreau’s WaldenAbstract: The article discusses possibilities of character building in computer games, which for many gamers is a way of expressing and modifying their own identity. Games differ in the degree of freedom given to a gamer in shaping the identity of the in-game character, or avatar, and in many games avatar-formation is an important part of game structure, providing a lot of game satisfaction, and requiring as much time and involvement as the game-play itself. The games under discussion are adaptations of H.D. Thoreau’s Walden. The choice of games stems from the observation that identity, freedom, and limitation are important themes of Thoreau’s work, which is reflected in the games under discussion. The three games discussed in the article are, thus, treated as modernist and postmodernist readings of a literary text, giving the reader/gamer more or less limited possibilities of shaping the character/avatar. Keywords: cultural theory, Henry David Thoreau, Walden, videogames
PL
For an abstract in English, scroll down.Artykuł omawia możliwości kształtowania postaci w grach komputerowych, dla wielu graczy jest to możliwość wyrażenia i modyfikacji własnej tożsamości. Gry różnią się bardzo swobodą, jaką gracz ma przy kształtowaniu tożsamości postaci-awatara, którą gra, przy czym w wielu współczesnych grach jest to ważna część struktury gry, dostarczająca graczom dużo satysfakcji i wymagająca od nich równie dużo czasu i zaangażowania, co sam proces gry. Omówione gry to komputerowe adaptacje dzieła Walden Henry'ego Davida Thoreau. Dobór przykładowych gier jest uzasadniony tym, że tożsamość, wolność i ograniczenie to ważne tematy dzieła Thoreau, znajdujące swoje odzwierciedlenie w grach opartych na tekście. Trzy omawiane gry zostały zatem potraktowane jako modernistyczne i postmodernistyczne odczytania tektstu literackiego, dające mniej lub bardziej ograniczone możliwości kształtowania postaci-awatara gracza.The article discusses possibilities of character building in computer games, which for many gamers is a way of expressing and modifying their own identity. Games differ in the degree of freedom given to a gamer in shaping the identity of the in-game character, or avatar, and in many games avatar-formation is an important part of game structure, providing a lot of game satisfaction, and requiring as much time and involvement as the game-play itself. The games under discussion are adaptations of H.D. Thoreau's Walden. The choice of games stems from the observation that identity, freedom, and limitation are important themes of Thoreau's work, which is reflected in the games under discussion. The three games discussed in the article are, thus, treated as modernist and postmodernist readings of a literary text, giving the reader/gamer more or less limited possibilities of shaping the character/avatar.
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