AWEJ for Translation & Literary Studies, Volume 7, Number 1. February 2023 Pp.101-114
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awejtls/vol7no1.7
World Literature Representation via Video Games
Ali Alshhre
Department of English Language
Faculty of Sciences and Arts
King Khalid University
Muhayil, Assir Province, Saudi Arabia
Email: dr.alshhre@gmail.com
Received:11/31/2022 Accepted:02/07/2023 Published: 02/24/023
Abstract:
This article aims to answer the following question: can video games be a dynamic medium for globalizing an adapted work of literature to be later played and received by gamers who might learn and increase their literary and cultural knowledge? World literature scholarship, gamer-response theory, game studies research, and my experience of playing Assassin’s Creed (2007) were used to explore how video games can globalize world literature to increase readership. The video game Assassin’s Creed (2007), adapted from Bartol’s Alamut (1938), was used to both discuss how world literature can be transmitted via video games and demonstrate how video game adaptations can be beneficial for learning and increasing global readership among gamers. The process of globalizing Alamut via Assassin’s Creed is shown by focusing on how the game employs different themes taken from the novel, its narrative, and some actual historical characters and places, such Acre, Jerusalem, Damascus, and Masyaf castle. Using literary novels and adapting them as video games can be adequate for incorporating those novels into world literature because the novel’s narrative is transmitted and exposed to gamers worldwide, thereby facilitating the transmission process of the novel’s content. Thus, it is recommended that the possibility of expanding world literature should be explored via adaptations of novels into video games.
Keywords: Assassins, Assassin’s Creed game, gamer-response theory, game studies, reader-response theory,
ludology, world literature, video games
Cite as: Alshhre, A. (2023). World Literature Representation via Video Games. Arab World English Journal for Translation & Literary Studies 7 (1). 101-114.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awejtls/vol7no1.7
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