Prospectus

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Games and Transmedia Storytelling

Course
2018-2019

Admission requirements

Not applicable

Description

Games are being sold and experienced, not as “autonomous” products, but as components of a conglomeration of different texts that are distributed through a range of platforms. Games derive characters and plots from other media (Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, etc), or they may become the point of departure of screen adaptations or novelisations themselves (Tomb Raider, Assassin’s Creed). In this 6-week course we will explore how stories are told across various platforms, and how this network of cultural texts creates a fictional space with which the gamer/reader/viewer can interact.

Course objectives

After this course, students have obtained

  • insight in the theoretical and methodological implications of the concept of “convergence culture” (Jenkins);

  • insight in, and the ability to analyse, the intertextual relations between video games and other media;

  • insight in the ways in which games influence other art forms, and vice versa;

  • insight in the differences between media-specific forms of narration, and the ability to analyze the different forms.

Timetable

The timetable is available on the website

Mode of instruction

Seminars

Course Load

140 hrs total

  • Course meetings: 12 hrs

  • Preparation for meetings: 88 hrs

  • Exams: 40 hrs

Assessment method

Take-home exam (100%)

Resit

Take-home exam (100%)

Exam review

How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organized.

Blackboard

Blackboard will be used to provide students with additional information/reading material.

Reading list

The reading list will be announced on Blackboard. Short essays that are not available on internet will be placed on Blackboard, longer texts will be available on the “werkgroepenplank” (working group shelves) in the library.

Registration

Enrolment through uSis for classes, exams and final papers is mandatory.

Contact information

For questions about the content of the course, you can contact the teacher Dr. Y. Horsman

Student administration: Van Wijkplaats
Coordinator of studies: ms. drs. E.M.T.Poolman

Remarks

For more information please check the website of the study program Film and Literature Studies.