Project description
Gaming and the Picaresque struggle against society
Social issues like oppression and discrimination often shape the lives of individuals, and these themes are reflected in the stories of many popular video games. By featuring rogues who struggle against societal forces, these games echo the traditions of picaresque fiction, a literary genre that explores social determinism. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the MASQUES project will develop a model to analyse how social challenges manifest in video game narratives. Building on existing research, it will combine the expertise of the University of Glasgow’s Centres for Comparative Literature, Text/Image Cultures, and Games & Gaming Lab to create a new multidisciplinary framework. This will allow for deeper insights into how modern games respond to societal issues.
Objective
Video games are one of the most popular cultural media nowadays. Their narratives frequently feature rogues suffering the consequences of social determinism, one of the main characteristics of Picaresque Fiction. Social determinism involves circumstances such as social oppression or ethnic/gender discrimination. Due to this, certain contemporary and past worldviews, as well as current social challenges permeate Picaresque texts, allowing players to experience complex sociocultural contexts through rogues and fictional stories.
Built upon my previous research that demonstrates the existence of a videoludic Picaresque that continues the legacy of Picaresque Literature, this project offers increased understanding of this type of contemporary Picaresque fiction insisting in the expression of the current social challenges that imbue it. The primary goal is to show how social determinism is embedded in these video games while manifesting worldviews aligned with contemporary social challenges and influenced by previous Picaresque Literature. Considering narrative and ludic aspects of this cultural medium, a model of analysis for the social determinism in video games will be developed using a multidisciplinary theoretical framework with the intention of exporting it to different media and genres. Despite not existing previous work that study social determinism in the videoludic Picaresque, there are authors who have explored this characteristic in Picaresque Literature, the worldviews of this type of fiction, or manifestations of oppression and discrimination in video games. This project will combine these theories, create new ones, and apply them to video games using a new model shaped with the blended multidisciplinary support of three renowned centres of humanistic knowledge of the University of Glasgow: the Centre for Comparative Literature and Translation, the Stirling Maxwell Centre of Text/Image Cultures and the Games and Gaming Lab.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
G12 8QQ Glasgow
United Kingdom
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