Historical Settings as Transmedia Storyworlds Across Fiction, Tabletop RPG, Live-Action Role-Plays and Video Games. Theory and Case Studies Through the Lenses of Narratology and Heritage Discourses.

research grant OPUS 2020/39/B/HS2/01999 from the National Science Center, Poland

Team

Dr. habil. Michał Mochocki, Dr. Paweł Schreiber, Dr. Jakub Majewski

Project summary

Our project, carried out in 2021-2023 at Kazimierz Wielki University in Poland, is positioned at the intersection of historical fiction research and historical game studies, united by the shared methodologies of cognitive transmedia narratology and critical studies of heritage discourses. The starting point is ‘heritage narratology’, developed by M. Mochocki in 2021-2022. This project expands narratological studies of storyworld structures with a simultaneous study of their correlations with heritage discourses. The resulting narratological-discursive analysis is a novel approach. It is informed by research on ideologically shaped mental models, as they are studied in cognitive psychology of discourse, which are here linked to mental models of imagined storyworlds, as conceptualised in cognitive narratology. In our case, the analysis of socially shared mental models does not lead to a linguistic analysis of text (typical of critical discourse analysis), but to a narratological analysis of constructed models of historical storyworlds. 

In terms of theory and methodology, the project contributes to the debates on factuality and fictionality in historical fictions; on the creation and consumption of historical fictions as heritage practices; on the dependence of newly created fictions on existing heritage narratives and discourses; and on the medium-specific affordances and limitations of representing historical settings in various narrative media. Moreover, as we chose to focus on case studies set in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the American Old West, we also participate in the discussion of the history, heritage, and historical fiction and games in these two settings. The choice of settings is not accidental. They are relatively distant periods of the early stages of nation-building, hence they are very significant in national politics of memory. They both are heavily featured in national and sub/supranational heritage discourses and in multiple works of historical fiction, including cherished (by some - hated by others) literary and film classics. Moreover, their storyworlds have surprisingly many similarities as factual historical pasts as well as settings for action-adventure fictions. 

Key research questions

1. What can we discover about historical fictions if we approach a historical period setting as a transmedia storyworld shared by works of fiction and nonfiction?
2. How is the construction of historical storyworlds influenced by pre-existing narratives and heritage discourses about the particular historical period?
3. What forms of reader/player engagement with such a facto-fictional historical setting are afforded by specific media? (literary historical fiction, video games, and nondigital role-playing games)

The analytical chapters with case studies on two particular settings have specific questions:

1. How is the transmedia universe of the American Old West constructed and represented in selected narrative media (fiction and games?) How are its specific instances shaped by existing heritage discourses?
2. as above, for the transmedia universe of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

The results of the project are 5 short texts (journal papers and book chapters) and 1 monograph. At the moment of the official end of the project, 2 chapters and 1 paper have been accepted for publication. The other texts are under review. Throughout the project, we delivered 8 conference talks, and another one is coming soon. 

Publications

Mochocki, M. (forthcoming). Historical Settings as Transmedia Storyworlds. In D. Ciesielska, M. Hills, N. Lamerichs, & A. Zarzycka (Eds.), Archives of Affect: Productivity in Fan Cultures. Amsterdam University Press.

Mochocki, M., & Nowicki, I. (forthcoming). Correlations of Immersion and Authenticity in the Experience of Fencing in Hellish Quart and For Honor. In States of Immersion: Bodies, Medias, Technologies. Amsterdam University Press.

Majewski, J. (forthcoming). Last Remnants of the French Wild West: Remembering Colorado (1990). Anglica Wratislaviensia.

Schreiber, P. (under review). Michael Ondaatje’s ‘The Collected Works of Billy the Kid' and the notion of the historical setting as a transmedia universe", submitted to International Journal of English Studies

Majewski, J., Mochocki, M., & Schreiber, P. (under review). Pushing in from the Margins: Player Efforts to Insert Polish-Lithuanian Cultural Heritage into Games, submitted to Proceedings of DiGRA 2023.

Mochocki, M., Schreiber, P., & Majewski, J. (under review). Historical Settings as Transmedia Universes. The Storyworlds of the American Old West and Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Across Print Fiction, Nonfiction and Games.

Conferences

Mochocki, M. & J. Majewski, "Exploring Historical Settings as Transmedia Storyworlds: Towards a "<<Heritage Narratology>>", at the Kulturotwórcza funkcja gier conference, Games Research Association of Poland, online, 19-20.11.2021

Mochocki, M.. "Historical Settings as Transmedia Storyworlds: Towards a <Heritage Narratology>”, at the Historical Fictions Research Network conference, online, 18-20.02.2022

Schreiber, P.. "Worldbuilding in Michael Ondaatje’s 'Collected Works of Billy the Kid’", at the PASE 2022 conference, Uniwersytet Jagielloński, Kraków, Poland, 1-3.07.2022.

Mochocki, M. & I. Nowicki."Biosemiotic Experience of Avatar-Mediated Fencing in For Honor and Hellish Quart", at the Digital Games Research Association 2022 conference, Uniwersytet Jagielloński, Kraków, Poland, 7-11.07.2022.

Majewski, J., P. Schreiber & M. Mochocki, "The Heritage of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in Polish Videogames", at the Digital Games Research Association 2022 conference, Uniwersytet Jagielloński, Kraków, Poland, 7-11.07.2022. 

Mochocki, M. (with: A. Mochocka, M. Garda, S. Krawczyk & P. Sterczewski), a panel presentation on Polish medieval and early modern history in Polish-made games at the Central and Eastern European Historical Game Studies Workshop, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czechia, 21-22.10.2022.

Mochocki, M., J. Majewski & P. Schreiber; “Intent and Content in Polish Sarmatian Videogames”, at the Games and Literary Theory, Uniwersytet Śląski, Katowice, Poland, 10-11.05.2023

Majewski, J., P. Schreiber & M. Mochocki, “Pushing in from the Margins: Player Efforts to Insert Polish-Lithuanian Cultural Heritage into Games”, at the Digital Games Research Association 2023 conference, Universidad de Sevilla, Seville, Spain, 19-23.06.2023.

Mochocki, M., J. Majewski & P. Schreiber; “The Heritage Discourses of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in Polish Video Games”, at the Central and Eastern European Game Studies conference, Macromedia University of Applied Sciences, Leipzig, Germany, 19-21.10.2023.