Abstract
This paper applies psychoanalytic frameworks to the survival horror franchise Silent Hill , a series which is itself informed by psychoanalytic themes. Concerns include the construction of game space as maternal womb, cinematic sequences as primal fantasies, and the representation of memory across the games within a psychoanalytic context. The horror genres’ preoccupation with monstrous mother figures is evident in boss battle adversaries, the depiction of gamespaces as bloody «maternal caves», and in narratives concerning characters’ searching for their parental origins Distinguishing between videogames’ playable sequences and cinematics as conscious and sub-conscious aspects, cut-scenes are analysed as reproducing primal fantasies, serving to explain protagonists’ backstory and situating play within narrative contexts. Such moments intrude into the game, marking transformations between the ordinary world and the abject Otherworld, or heralding the emergence of psychoanalytically-resonant monstrous creatures which the protagonist must destroy. Finally, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is examined as a game which, even more than others, foregrounds the series’ explicit reference to psychoanalytic preoccupations, engaging with contemporary understandings concerning the relationship between memory, media and fantasy.
Highlights
This paper continues an established scholarly tradition, identified by E
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is examined as a game which, even more than others, foregrounds the series’ explicit reference to psychoanalytic preoccupations, engaging with contemporary understandings concerning the relationship between memory, media and fantasy
Throughout this paper a focus has been maintained on the ways in which the videogames as a culture different from literature, film, television, and other visual arts, engages with psychoanalytic preoccupations
Summary
This paper continues an established scholarly tradition, identified by E. The aim of this paper is to illustrate how psychoanalytic frameworks facilitate an understanding of the medium-specific ways these games generate a sense of unease and disquiet; how grammatical structures and conventions common across the videogame medium are twisted to serve the expression of narratives in which protagonists battle psychological demons from their past; and how the interactivity of the medium affords an interactive expression of the malleability of that past and the degree to which personal memories are as much a construction of an individuals’ present psychology as actual events Inherent in such a project is an engagement with the productive potential of applying psychoanalytic approaches beyond this case study, thrown into relief by their explicit mobilisation across this particular series. The final section of this paper focusses on Silent Hill: Shattered Memories and its reflection upon processes of remembering, the impact of media such as family photographs and home movies on these processes, and the ways in which memory entails as much a fantasy as authentic reflection of the subject’s life history
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