![]() ![]() Fascinatingly, by doing this the game essentially punishes the player for playing it, yet it remains compelling (indeed, it received near-universal critical acclaim among games journalism outlets) in spite of, or perhaps because of its attitude towards videogame violence. Due to the interactivity which makes the game work as a game, the player must put their hands on the trigger with the protagonist, Captain Martin Walker, in order to proceed through the game, a fact which Spec Ops then holds up to the player as an example of their complicity in the game’s violence. I read Yager Development’s Spec Ops: The Line (2012) as a prime example of a videogame that manages to involve the player in the perpetration of atrocities through a slow process of coming to empathise with the character who commits them. ![]() This paper proposes a further solution to the question of how to encourage the audience to identify with the perpetrator’s perspective: making the audience complicit in the deeds perpetrated by the protagonist, through the use of interactivity in the videogame medium. The solution, for Rose, is to withhold information from the audience regarding the true character of the protagonist, thereby allowing empathy to build for the character until the point when their villainy is revealed (as in Bernhard Schlink’s The Reader and Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day, after which Rose’s piece is named). At the same time, however, Rose also questions whether such empathy with an SS man is even possible, given that the audience would be aware of the identity of the protagonist from the start, and would therefore (in Robert Eaglestone’s words) be “unable to want what this evil man wants” (13). In “Beginnings of the Day – Fascism and Representation,” Gillian Rose proposes the creation of a film “which follows the life story of a member of the SS in all its pathos, so that we empathise with him, identify with his hopes and fears, disappointment and rage, so that when it comes to killing, we put our hands on the trigger with him, wanting him to get what he wants” (50). DISCOUNT Use the promotional code FLR40 at checkout to receive a 20% discount. Stef Craps is a professor of English literature at Ghent University, Belgium. The Future of Trauma Conclusion: The Limits of Trauma Glossary ABOUT THE AUTHORS Lucy Bond is a principal lecturer in English literature at the University of Westminster, UK. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction: Not Even Past 1. In this illuminating and accessible volume, Lucy Bond and Stef Craps: - provide an account of the history of the concept of trauma from the late nineteenth century to the present day - examine debates around the term in their historical and cultural contexts - trace the origins and growth of literary trauma theory - introduce the reader to key thinkers in the field - explore important issues and tensions in the study of trauma as a cultural phenomenon - outline and assess recent critiques and revisions of cultural trauma research Trauma is an essential guide to a rich and vibrant area of literary and cultural inquiry. ![]() Trauma has become a catchword of our time and a central category in contemporary theory and criticism. ![]()
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