Translation at Play: Approaching The Stanley Parable as a theoretical object

Abstract

This thesis discusses the videogame The Stanley Parable from the perspective of translation as characterized by George Steiner. This approach connects translation, which Steiner compares to the process of interpretation, to the act of playing videogames. In order to enable this, The Stanley Parable is approached as a theoretical object as described by Hubert Damisch. This allows for a broad theoretical reach, as well as critical consideration of both the object and the theory applied to it. Roland Barthes’ intertextual codes offer a method of analysis which leads to a discussion of concepts such as postmodernism, postcolonialism, environmental storytelling, linear versus non-linear narrative, interactivity, responsibility, artificiality, agency and the ludology-narratology debate. It discusses how translation can be compared to the act of playing, embedding the notion of translation as a way of thinking into the act of gaming, likening the process of play to a more interactive process of interpretation.