Wargaming (as) literature

MacCallum-Stewart, Esther

Abstract

As Kirschenbaum argues, board wargames have a lot to teach about the ways that narrative is created in games and “help us to understand the role of process and procedure in stories and games” (Kirschenbaum 2009: 369). In addition, they have a rich history of their own as reportage, literary texts and fan-produced artifacts. Literary and popular texts also refer to wargaming as a common trope, including using them as a central theme, as an adage or plot device, as extended or short metaphor, or simply as a throwaway inference. This chapter aims to unpack some of these ideas, as well as arguing that wargaming literature occupies a number of different positions within popular media. Thus the two ideas of seeing literary elements in wargames through playing them as a narrative and consuming their narratives retrospectively are able to live cohesively together.

• Publication Date: Mar 31, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 7, 2019
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Pages: 555-572
• Series Title: Game Histories
• Book Title: Zones of Control, Perspectives on Wargaming
• ISBN: 9780262033992
• Keywords: wargames, games studies, gaming, games cultures, players, war
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/913184
• Publisher URL: https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/zones-control
• Additional Information: Additional Information : This chapter was originally published in Zones of Control, Perspectives on Warming, edited by Pat Harrigan and Matthew G. Kirschenbaum, published by The MIT Press. The published version of the chapter can be found in the full book, available here: https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/zones-control
• Contract Date: Oct 30, 2015