Abstract

This paper is about locating the meaning of a series of games known as the Dark Souls series in relation to contemporary social conditions in Japan. I argue that the game should be thought of as an emblem of the current cultural zeitgeist, in a similar way one might identify something like Jack Kerouac’s The Dharma Bums as an emblem of the counter cultural 60s. I argue that the Dark Souls series expresses in allegorical form an anxiety about living in a time where the meaning of our everyday actions and even society itself has become significantly destabilized. It does this through a fractured approach to story-telling, that is interspersed with Buddhist metaphysics and wrapped up in macabre, gothic aesthetic depicting the last gasping breath of a once great kingdom. This expression of contemporary social anxiety is connected to the discourse of postmodernity in Japan. Through looking at these games as a feedback loop between text, environment and ludic system, I connect the main conceptual motifs that structure the games as a whole with Osawa Masachi’s concept of the post-fictional era and Hiroki Azuma’s definition of the otaku.

Details

Title
The Downward Spiral: Postmodern Consciousness as Buddhist Metaphysics in the Dark Souls Video Game Series
Author
Menuez, Paolo Xavier Machado
Year
2017
Publisher
ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
ISBN
978-0-355-76934-0
Source type
Dissertation or Thesis
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2024701969
Copyright
Database copyright ProQuest LLC; ProQuest does not claim copyright in the individual underlying works.