[Commlist] CFP: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Narrative Aesthetics in Video Games

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Call for Chapters:

*Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Narrative Aesthetics in Video Games*


Proposals Submission Deadline: *September 18, 2019**
*Full Chapters Due: *January 16, 2020**
*Submission Date: *May 10, 2020*


*Introduction*

Each period creates its particular aesthetics. Developments in the 
scientific and technological fields affect art forms and accelerate 
their evolution. In time, the leading art movements of an era generate 
and exceed their own saturation of thresholds, transform their 
‘deep-and-singular' selves into 'shallow-and-multiple' selves. An art 
form that evolves by its internal dynamics and statics reaches the 
threshold of saturation, and finally becomes a 'springboard' upon which 
another art form can take further steps. This is how art forms evolve in 
interaction. In this context, video games have rapidly covered the path 
that cinema has taken over a long period.

By advancing through its evolution, video games now represent many 
narrative systems that provide a semantic reserve of form and content 
for both their own medium and the other mediums. These narrative systems 
have been inevitably subjected to the effects of technological 
developments. Meanwhile, concepts such as Mimesis, Diegesis, and 
Katharsis, which have remained valid since Aristotle, have dominated the 
narrative channels throughout the history of art given the enigmatic 
attractiveness of their singularities. As in everything, the principle 
of dialectic antagonism, which carries and expands all the layers of 
meaning by adding new particles as time progresses, stood against these 
concepts by revealing alternative systems like Brechtian, Modern and 
Postmodern narratives, particularly in theater and cinema. On the one 
hand, it can be claimed that there has always been a single narrative 
idea and it embodied in various mediums; on the other hand, it can also 
be claimed that each media could have inevitably created its own 
narrative system. In both cases, it is certain that almost every piece 
of art which conveyed by many other mediums or branches formed their own 
ontologic “present,” while feeding on the unalterable knowledge of the 
past. Sometimes by standing alongside the things they show, sometimes by 
standing up against, or sometimes by being only neutral observers to them.

Evolutionary big leaps in the history of art have always taken place 
with a dimensional expansion and Every successful thing goes beyond its 
predecessor. As the predecessor of video games, cinema took the first 
big leap and replicated the unique features of many previous art forms 
and synthesized them. The dimensional expansion here manifested as 
(detection of) movement. Afterward, video games replicated mostly all 
the features of cinema and others and synthesized them. The dimensional 
expansion here manifested as interactivity. Since video games synthesize 
unique features of various art forms, they have the qualified 
characteristics of expressing many meanings, elements, contents and 
methods that convey and construct narrative systems in various ways.

*
*

*Objective**
*

In this project, our Editorial Advisory Board and we will endeavor to 
read video games as one of the most potent and evolutionary 
representatives of narrativity, from a narrativist perspective without 
missing valuable arguments of ludologist perspective. As a collection of 
critical and cultural studies, this book aims to provide valuable 
knowledge of relevant theoretical and conceptual frameworks in both game 
studies and the theory of video games. This book also aims to be a 
manuscript that reassesses and interprets intensive topics of the 
history of video games from a contemporary and multidisciplinary 
perspective. I’ll be written for scholars, researchers, practitioners, 
and professionals who want to enhance their understanding and imply the 
knowledge of the relationship and correlation of video games, 
narrativity, and aesthetics.

*
*

*Target Audience*

The target audience of this book will be composed of scholars, 
researchers, practitioners, and professionals studying and/or working in 
the fields of game studies, history of video games, art and other arts, 
media arts, social and communication sciences, interdisciplinary and 
multidisciplinary studies, media studies, critical and cultural studies, 
narration arts like cinema, theater, literature, photography and music, 
and game design.

*
*

*Recommended Topics**
*

*Welcomed Topics Include (but also a combination of) the following: *

• Analyzes through Narrative Discourse of Gerard Genette upon video games.
• Analyzes on video games with Erwin Panofsky’s Iconographic method.
• Linguistic Competence of Video Games: Emergence and maintenance of 
meaning codes, components, patterns, and systems.
• The appearance of Classic, Modern, and Postmodern narrative in video 
games.
• Exchange of narrative elements between art branches and video games.
• Analogical narrative design in video games.
• Relativist narrative design in video games.
• Perspectivist narrative design in video games.
• Structuralist narrative design in video games.
• Formalist narrative design in video games.
• Interpretivist narrative design in video games.
• Stylist narrative design in video games.
• Sophisticated content design in video games.
• Games that have complicated plots/superimpose narrative layers.
• Reading video games as a “representation system.”
• Games that replicate/transform cinematographic aesthetics.
• Games that replicate/transform photographic aesthetics.
• Games that replicate/transform literal aesthetics.
• Games that replicate/transform theatrical aesthetics.
• Games that replicate/transform musical aesthetics.
• The appearance of archetypes on video games/video game archetypes.
• The appearance of stereotypes on video games/video game stereotypes.
• The appearance of Kitsch, Pastiche, and Parody on video games.
• Mimetic, Diegetic, and Cathartic manifestations in video games.
• Epic, Poetic, and Didactic manifestations in video games.
• Theoretical analysis of narratology through video games.
• Historical analysis of narratology through video games.
• Sociological analysis of narratology through video games.
• Psychological analysis of narratology through video games.
• Anthropological analysis of narratology through video games.
• Dialogue, monologue & inner voice in the context of video game narrative.
• Narrative aesthetics through acting & dubbing in video games.
• The aesthetic function of the narrator in video games.

*
*

*Submission Procedure*

Scholars and researchers are invited to submit on or before *Sept 18, 
2019*, a chapter proposal of 500 to 750 words (excluding bibliography) 
clearly explaining the mission and concerns of his or her proposed 
chapter and an author information 200 to 300 words. The authors will be 
notified by *Oct 05, 2019* about the acceptance of their proposals and 
sent chapter guidelines. Full chapters are expected to be submitted by 
*Jan 16, 2020*. All interested authors must consult the guidelines for 
manuscript submissions at 
http://www.igi-global.com/publish/contributor-resources/before-you-write/prior 
to submission. All manuscripts are accepted based on a double-blind peer 
review editorial process. Contributors may also be requested to serve as 
reviewers for this project.

*Note*: There are no submission or acceptance fees for manuscripts 
submitted to this book publication, Multidisciplinary Perspectives on 
Narrative Aesthetics in Video Games.

All proposals should be submitted through the eEditorial Discovery®TM 
online submission manager.

*
*

*Publisher*

This book is scheduled to be published by IGI Global (formerly Idea 
Group Inc.), publisher of the "Information Science Reference" (formerly 
Idea Group Reference), "Medical Information Science Reference," 
"Business Science Reference," and "Engineering Science Reference" 
imprints. For additional information regarding the publisher, please 
visit www.igi-global.com 
<https://www.igi-global.com/publish/call-for-papers/call-details/www.igi-global.com>. This 
publication is anticipated to be released in 2020.

*
*

*Important Dates**
*

*
*

*Sept 18, 2019:* Proposal Submission Deadline
*Oct 5, 2019:* Notification of Acceptance
*Jan 16, 2020:* Full Chapter Submissions
*Mar 15, 2020:* Review Results Returned
*Apr 12, 2020:* Revised Chapter Submission
*May 10, 2020:* Final Chapter Submission

*
*

*Project Link**
*

https://www.igi-global.com/publish/call-for-papers/call-details/4302*
*

*
*

*Editors*

*Deniz Denizel *
Bahcesehir University
(deniz.denizel /at/ comm.bau.edu.tr) <mailto:(deniz.denizel /at/ comm.bau.edu.tr)>

*Deniz Eyüce Şansal *
Bahcesehir University
(deniz.eyucesansal /at/ comm.bau.edu.tr) <mailto:(deniz.eyucesansal /at/ comm.bau.edu.tr)>

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