Performative reckoning: memory, puppets, and avatars
Article / Journal
Author(s) / editor(s):
Chee-Hann Wu
Year: 2025
Language(s): English
Abstract:
The article analyzes the horror video game Detention (2017), set during Taiwan’s White Terror, to show how video games can engage with historical memory, trauma, death, and the undead. Drawing on Alison Landsberg’s concept of prosthetic memory, it argues that the game’s use of puppets and avatars creates affective, flexible histories that contest rigid, official narratives, especially for generations distant from the original events. Puppets stand in for dehumanized victims, while avatars function as extensions of the player, turning gameplay and role‑play into performative reenactments of history. Through repetition and replay, players confront historical trauma in a virtual space while remaining aware of the game’s fictionality. Detention thus illustrates how games can serve as powerful, accessible media for re‑staging trauma and exploring the layered complexities of collective memory.
https://doi.org/10.1080/14794713.2025.2579379
Post created by: Virginia Signorini