Wargaming (as) Literature

Abstract

As Kirschenbaum argues, board wargames have a lot to teach about the ways that narrative is created in games and “help us to understand the role of process and procedure in stories and games” (Kirschenbaum 2009: 369). In addition, they have a rich history of their own as reportage, literary texts and fan-produced artifacts. Literary and popular texts also refer to wargaming as a common trope, including using them as a central theme, as an adage or plot device, as extended or short metaphor, or simply as a throwaway inference. This chapter aims to unpack some of these ideas, as well as arguing that wargaming literature occupies a number of different positions within popular media. Thus the two ideas of seeing literary elements in wargames through playing them as a narrative and consuming their narratives retrospectively are able to live cohesively together.