“Dear Esther”: repetition, rite, and time
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5007/1807-9288.2023.e94605Keywords:
Dear Esther, Time, Rite, HermeneuticsAbstract
This paper presents an interpretation of the digital narrative Dear Esther (PINCHBECK, 2012). This interpretation posits that there is a deep temporality which can be brought to evidence when the plot is understood as the enactment of a suicidal rite by the main (and only) character. To lay such a temporality in the open, there where examined: the indexes of manifestation of time through different moments of the narrative; the ways of interaction between the user and the work; and features of the fictional world constructed by the work’s program. These formal elements where confronted with significant elements which are presented by the work through its narrative development, such as information provided by the narrative voice, objects, sounds, and visual alterations. The procedure to carry out these examination and confrontation had two forms: explorations of the work with the intention to go from the beginning to the end in the shortest chronometric time; free explorations without considering chronometric time. The findings of the overall examination process where interpreted through Gadamer’s (2003, p. 154-237) concept of “Spiel” and the reflections on time experience implicit to it.
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