Developing the literature review has been difficult mainly due to the fact that it is incredibly long and I very rapidly approached the word count of the thesis proposal and I have yet to write the draft chapter. I spoke with Nigel however and he suggested that I keep the literature review long as it is the part of the thesis I have the least experience with and would require the most input on. As such I will likely make the draft chapter only a paragraph or so long. Here is my literature review and bibliography:
Approaching this ‘false’ nostalgia is difficult, it as a feeling that while can be described has yet to receive a collectively accepted term to describe it yet. In addition to this applying this feeling to approach a media form that has yet to be agree upon if it should count as an art form or not has brought this paper into difficult territory. First to discuss the literature that raises the various arguments for and against video games as an art form.
Bourgonjon, Vandermeersche Rutten and Quinten in Perspectives on Video Games as Art discuss the arguments around video games as an art form. Bringing in a large collection of other works made by artists, critics and opinions of common peoples like gamers. Collecting an impressive mass of diverse opinions. While a great resources on the arguments for and against the paper ultimately takes no stance on either side of the argument and as result contributes greatly in knowledge but little in the way of persuasion on either side which this paper would require a focus on arguments for rather than against as this paper takes the stance that video games are an art form. In counter to this Smuts Are Video Games Art? offers a shallower range of arguments in contrast but actively participates in the debate on the side of video games as an art form and challenges the arguments presented against it. While this is useful for this paper with it being designed inherently for video games as an art form it is a paper that must be carefully tempered against using arguments that were not addressed as to keep this paper balanced.
Another important framework for this paper is this idea of ‘false nostalgia’. While this paper has opted to use the word Anemoia this feeling has also been described with the phrases Sehnsucht and Nostalgia. Anemoia is most easily defined in Nostalgia doesn’t need real memories – an imagined past works as well, a shortened version of an essay previously published in The Moral Psychology of Sadness, outlines Anemoia and discusses this type of nostalgia closely. Unfortunately as a shortened version of an original article that access to has not been found it does not go into as much depth as it could and thus limits its application to this paper’s later points on why this feeling may be present and lacks the specificity of application to an artistic medium delivering it. Sehnsucht is addressed in detail in Kehl’s Writing the Long Desire: The Function of Sehnsucht in the Great Gatsby and Look Homeward, Angel. This article helps to cover the reasons why this feeling of Anemoia, here referred to as Sehnsucht, is present culturally. While this article helps to further ground and define this amorphous feeling it specifically addresses it in the context of literature and not video games thusly applying its conclusions to this paper’s analysis is something that must be handled carefully as the analytical frameworks would not necessarily apply. Howard’s Nostalgia is a useful resource as it delves deeply into nostalgia and specifices a distinction between nostalgia for an experience one has had and one that one hasn’t experienced. This is useful as these two nostalgia are sometimes conflated and frameworks for nostalgia Howard explains can be used to support this paper’s own arguments later on however Howard while making this distinction does clarify that the nostalgia his paper develops frameworks for is not the kind that includes Anemoia and as such limits the applicability of his frameworks.
But how do these video games function as vehicles? Garda notes in Nostalgia in Retro Game Design that games can function as vehicles for nostalgia by recreating a perceived mythological essence of an era. As a specific example Hotline Miami and it’s ‘1980’s-ness’. Garda provides a through framework of nostalgia being carried by video games inclusive of anemoia under the guise of ‘reflective’ nostalgia. Though an issue is that this reflective nostalgia ‘does not demand personal memories’ (Garda, 4) which will includes anemoia is not exclusive to anemoia as one can have personal memories in this frame work. Craving Analogue Sensation in A Digital World: Exploring The Collecting Behaviour of Digital Native Vinyl Collectors aids in covering this gap as Dingelhoff speaks directly of Anemoia and how the medium of vinyl functions as a vehicle for this feeling, whether intentional or not on part of the musicians, though again something to be weary of is that this covers vinyl discs and not video games.
Lastly why this feeling may be present is covered by both Makai and Suominen in Video games as Objects and Vehicles of Nostalgia and The Past as the Future? Nostalgia and Retrogaming in Digital Culture respectively. Each dealing, in part, with why both creators and players may engage with ‘retrogaming’ culture. Though neither deal specifically with anemoia they do serve to highlight how the reception of nostalgia can be independent from both creator and player, that while a creator may intend for their product to carry a nostalgic feeling this may not come across to the player and that a player may infer nostalgia or anemoia from a product that originally had no intention.
Bibliography
Aeon. (n.d.). Nostalgia doesn’t need real memories – an imagined past works as well – Felipe De Brigard | Aeon Essays. [online] Available at: https://aeon.co/essays/nostalgia-doesnt-need-real-memories-an-imagined-past-works-as-well.
Bourgonjon, J., Vandermeersche, G., Rutten, K. and Quinten, N. (2017) ‘Perspectives on Video Games as Art.’, CLCWEb: Comparative Literature and Culture, 19.4. Available at: https://doi.org/10.7771/1481-4374.3024
Dingelhoff, D.(2022). ‘Craving Analogue Sensation in A Digital World: Exploring The Collecting Behaviour of Digital Native Vinyl Collectors.’ Available at: https://theses.ubn.ru.nl/handle/123456789/14120 (Accessed: 01 May 2023)
Garda, M.B. (2013) ‘Nostalgia in Retro Game Design.’ In DiGRA Conference. Available at: https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=3fb3134a29cdcf28a05cf5e6bd120ab5da295a7e (Accessed: 25 April 2023)
Howard, S. A. (2012). Nostalgia. Analysis, 72(4), 641–650. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23359115
Kehl, D. G. (2000). ‘Writing the Long Desire: The Function of Sehnsucht in the Great Gatsby and Look Homeward, Angel.’ Journal of Modern Literature, 24(2), 309–319. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3831913
Makai, P. (2018). ‘Video Games as Objects and Vehicles of Nostalgia.’ Humanities, 7 (4), 123. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/h7040123.
Smuts, A. (2005) ‘Are Video Games Art?’ Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive), 3(1), 6.
Suominen, J. (2008). ‘The Past as the Future? Nostalgia and Retrogaming in Digital Culture.’ In The 7th International Digital Arts and Cultures Conference. Available at: https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=9594059f378fd5c427eb151933429ec9509c8efa (Accessed: 01 May 2023)
