Trauma in Autobiographical Videogames: The Case of Father and I (2012)

Abstract

Although trauma and memory have been a focus of cultural studies for more than twenty years now, few scholarly works focus on medium-specific representations of trauma and even fewer comment on the tendency of trauma representations to be autobiographical in the 21st Century. The present paper is part of a larger project that seeks to tackle precisely these issues. Here, I look at the representation of trauma in a relatively recent autobiographical video game, namely Vince Caballero’s Father and I (2012). I argue that the use of trauma as a trope adds a further narrative demand to video games, making it even more difficult to negotiate the specificities of the medium. At the same time, however, it functions as a stock story that enhances the narrative dimensions of the game under discussion.

Keywords

• autobiography
• narrative
• rules
• trauma
• video games