Date of Award
2022
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
English
Committee Chair
Eric Smith
Committee Member
Joseph Conway
Committee Member
Beth Boswell
Subject(s)
Video games, Storytelling, Utopias in literature, Outer Wilds (Game)
Abstract
Video games have evolved from simplistic marks moving on a screen to a diverse and inventive storytelling medium unique from other narrative forms. They allow for new methods of approaching traditional literary forms, such as the utopia. The utopian genre has seen a series of formal changes as social and historical contexts changed over time. This thesis proposes a new approach to the utopian genre borne from the current inability to imagine a future. While previous literary versions of utopia were expressed by moving forward through time or displacement through space, current social and environmental circumstances render this impossible, and so, new time and space must be explored. This thesis explores this concept through the 2019 indie game Outer Wilds in which the protagonist is forced to turn to new concepts of time and space as the current universe is destroyed.
Recommended Citation
Salajka, Sarah, "Beyond the supernova : time, space, and utopia in Outer Wilds" (2022). Theses. 385.
https://louis.uah.edu/uah-theses/385