Body Rhetorics and Kinesthetic Empathy in the Video Game Bound (2016)

Agata Waszkiewicz

doi:10.29107/rr2019.1.2

Abstract

Dance is found in every known human culture as part of religious, social and healing ceremonies. The increased interest in the role of dance in western psychology corresponds with the creation of the American Dance Therapy Association (ADTA) founded by Marian Chace, and the beginning of the dance movement therapy (DMT). The Association introduced the dance and the dance-based movement as part of the therapeutic process, in order to explore the relationship between the expression of individual emotions and movement. Drawing both from the visual rhetorics approach (Patterson and Corning 1997) and the game studies (Fernández-Vara 2009) I will analyze the multiple narrative layers in the Bound video game (2016), pointing to the mutual relationship the player and the game have on each other (Keogh 2018) decoding the game as a metaphor for the therapeutic effects of dance.

Highlights

Paraphrasing the title of the book by Judith Butler (2011) one can state that the bodies do matter
Rhetorical scholars had long recognized what happens when the body starts to be used as an instrument of argumentation, rebellion, and self-identification (Butterworth 2014, 260)
Patterson and Corning note that the body has been present in the rhetoric since its Greek origins

Summary

Introduction

Paraphrasing the title of the book by Judith Butler (2011) one can state that the bodies do matter. Through its impossible Escher-esque architecture, vivid colors and abstract forms it soon reveals that underneath the complex visual metaphors it offers a simple, yet difficult narrative about straightforward but dark emotions These binary oppositions are mirroring each other on different stages of the game between the realistic, slow-paced layer where the pregnant woman takes a slow walk down the beach on her way from her car to the house of her estranged father, and the surrealistic world depicting the world of her imagination. What makes Bound interesting is the Princess who moves exclusively through dance She walks, runs, and jumps just like most video characters, but at the same time she incorporates dance into her every motion. While all three versions of the game might offer different experiences, my analysis concentrates on how the three levels (the human protagonist, the Princess, the player) incorporate the therapeutic metaphor

Kinesthetic empathy in Bound

The therapeutic effect of Bound

Conclusion