Restless Dreams and Shattered Memories : Psychoanalysis and Silent Hill

This paper applies psychoanalytic frameworks to the survival horror franchise Silent Hill, a series which is itself informed by psychoanalytic themes. Concerns include the construction of game space as maternal womb, cinematic sequences as primal fantasies, and the representation of memory across the games within a psychoanalytic context. The horror genres' preoccupation with monstrous mother figures is evident in boss battle adversaries, the depiction of gamespaces as bloody «maternal caves», and in narratives concerning characters' searching for their parental origins Distinguishing between videogames' playable sequences and cinematics as conscious and sub-conscious aspects, cut-scenes are analysed as reproducing primal fantasies, serving to explain protagonists' backstory and situating play within narrative contexts. Such moments intrude into the game, marking transformations between the ordinary world and the abject Otherworld, or heralding the emergence of psychoanalytically-resonant monstrous creatures which the protagonist must destroy. Finally, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is examined as a game which, even more than others, foregrounds the series' explicit reference to psychoanalytic preoccupations, engaging with contemporary understandings concerning the relationship between memory, media and fantasy.En el presente artículo se aplica el marco de estudio psicoanalítico a la serie de survival horror Silent Hill, ella misma basada en temas psicoanalíticos. Entre los asuntos tratados cabe mencionar la construcción del espacio del juego como un vientre materno, las secuencias cinemáticas como fantasías originarias (Urphantasien), así como la representación de la memoria durante las partidas en un contexto psicoanalítico. El interés del género de terror por las figuras maternas monstruosas es evidente en los adversarios que combate el jefe, en la descripción de los espacios del juego como sangrientas «cuevas maternales» y en los relatos sobre la búsqueda que emprenden los personajes para hallar su ascendencia. Distinguiendo entre secuencias jugables de videojuegos y secuencias cinemáticas como aspectos conscientes e inconscientes, las cinemáticas son analizadas como reproducciones de fantasías originarias que sirven para explicar el pasado de los protagonistas y emplazar el juego en contextos narrativos. Tales elementos irrumpen en la partida, señalando el paso del mundo ordinario al abyecto Más Allá (y viceversa) o anunciando la aparición de monstruosas criaturas de resonancias psicoanalíticas que el protagonista debe destruir. Finalmente, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories es estudiado como un juego que, incluso más que otros, pone en primer plano las referencias explícitas de la serie a cuestiones psicoanalíticas, entroncando con las interpretaciones contemporáneas acerca de la relación entre la memoria, los medios y la fantasía

"Little girls and the things that they love":My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Audience, Identity, and the Privilege of Contemporary Fan Culture

The recent generation of My Little Pony has received particular popular and academic attention due to its visible following of young male enthusiasts. This article explores the so-called "Brony" phenomenon in terms of gender and age, cult spectator practices, fandom, masculinities, and the kinds of participatory culture with which the new series is associated. Despite the apparent transgression of men enjoying a television show clearly coded as being for young girls, it is argued that Brony practices reproduce many male-centered aspects of fan media consumption in a manner that recuperates the femininity of the brand according to masculine values and cultures. The "femininity" of the thirty-year old series is placed in historical and theoretical context, illustrating parallels between current and earlier incarnations of the franchise and its continuities with other women-centered popular media. Particularly significant here is the program's emphasis on female friendship. Yet such "gynocentric" qualities and the series' affinity with young viewers might have been eroded in recent episodes. This is partly through the incorporation of more masculine genres, but also in the increasing address of the show to its online fandom, an audience employing channels of fandom from which young people are effectively excluded. It is argued that these developments function to marginalise the series' core audience - ‘little girls' - in a process of appropriation and redefinition that ultimately serves the interests of a more visible and powerful demographic

Storytelling in survival horror video games

This paper looks at survival horror’s relationship with narrative and narration. Survival horror games remediate narrative cinema in their introductory sequences, cut-scenes inflecting players’ future actions with generic meaning. Diegetic media artefacts litter horror game environments providing narrative fragments. The dissection of gamespace through fixed camera points channels survival horror play in a particular direction, implying authorial orchestration for storytelling purposes. Game objects and adversaries often react to character movement in a scripted manner, as part of a pre-determined series of events requiring player participation. Moreover, gamespace is embedded with narrative information, revealing in often-bloody detail, frequently at the expense of interactivity. Various techniques invite the player into a narrative process involving sequential movement through space, the ordered completion of tasks, and the appropriate reading of gamespace. As such the survival horror game constitutes a story text reliant for its complete unfolding upon players’ actions being channelled in particular directions, an activity in which the survival horror gamer is wilfully complicit