Vocab Term: Mimesis Narratives

Definition: When it comes to a narrative, mimesis typically has to do with the degree of immersion that storytelling involves. If there are additional storytelling components beyond a narrator recounting events and character thoughts, then a story can be said to have memesis like qualities. Memesis involves visuals, action, and dialogue, which allows audiences to experience an entire world directly.

DH Source: Video games typically involve inventing a world where a user has some agency over the narrative. When the user directly experiences the world certain descriptions such “as “potential,” emergent,” “enacted,” or “experiential” are often provided by scholars” (Ciccoricco 223). Also, the fact that “[the interactive] narrative is arguably closer to dramatic enactment (or mimesis) than narration make it problematic to frame discussions in terms of diegesis in the first place” (Ciccoricco 223).

Commentary: The the potential of different narratives in a possibility space has the effect of excluding certain narrative discussions. For instance, when a user takes control of a character in a non-linear game this creates a narrative architecture that is probabilistic. Due to these designs authorial control of the narrative is relinquished. Paradoxically then, it ends up being impossible to ascribe any one particular storytelling style or theme to the creator of the game, especially when it comes to the overall interactive narrative.

David Ciccoricco. “Games As Art/Literature” The Johns Hopkins Guide to Digital Media, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014.