Literature & Video Games

In the fall of 2012, seventeen undergraduates at the University of Texas at Austin studied the convergence of literature and video games. Rather than viewing video games and literature as contenders for precious time, the students examined the ways literature and video games connect with and shape one another. This eBook is the product of that exploration.


This book is seventeen chapters of close reading and critical writing. Each author chose a video game and literature pair, with a few authors opting for more numerous literary sources. Some chapters question the notion of games as art. Others examine whether one medium succeeds at narrative better than the other. Still others explore the affordances and constraints of these expressive mediums. While all take a unique position, what ties them all together is an attention to the ways users interface with these forms of human and machine expression.