Electronic Literature and Game Narratives
A special issue of Humanities (ISSN 2076-0787).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2025 | Viewed by 243
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Electronic literature and digital games have common origins: Christopher Strachey’s love letter generator (1952) and the Spacewar! game (1962) were both experiments in expressive computing. Yet for years these forms occupied separate cultural spaces, electronic literature treated mainly in the academy while games became mainstream entertainment. That distinction began to erode in the present century, driven by changes in demographics, markets, and platforms that have nurtured independent games and brought sophistication to commercial products. Creators using tools like Twine have begun to realize Anna Anthropy’s dream of a maker-centric culture for games, while auteurs such as Hideo Kojima and Lucas Pope explore the divergent genre that Melissa Kagen calls “wandering games”. On the literary side, academic entities like the U.S.-based Electronic Literature Organization, and in Europe, the Center for Digital Narrative and Association for Research in Digital Narrative, have created structures for sustained research and art practice. Competitions including the Interactive Fiction Competition and the New Media Writing Prize promote academic-commercial crossings.
This special issue invites inquiries into the convergence and ongoing differences between electronic literature and games (digital and otherwise). Submissions might include:
- Readings of significant games and texts
- Theoretical approaches to interactive narrative
- Platform studies of digital tools and
- Perspectives on popular and elite culture
- Considerations of emerging technologies like XR and generative AI
Prof. Dr. Stuart Moulthrop
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- electronic literature
- computer games
- narrative
- digital culture
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