Abstract

Third-world adaptations of dominantly Western forms of cultural production generally assert the postcolonial nation- as argued by Fredrick Jameson in his 1986 reading of the novel form. Moreover, as Nancy Fraser notes in her 1996 Tanner lecture, claims for social justice are increasingly moving from demands of redistribution to recognition, particularly with the rise of identity politics and the demise of communism. The paper discusses how scholarship and the situation of the majority of digital games from the subcontinent can be read in light of the above two observations, which are presented as postcolonial formulations. This paper presents the game Missing (Flying Robot Studios, 2016) as a text to show that gaming in the subcontinent is now breaking from such postcolonial formulations marking a radical break in the discourse of digital gaming in South Asia in terms of moving away from the postcolonial. Firstly, by refusing to limit itself territorially to a national imaginary and by refusing to historicise itself using a moment from the history of the nation, the game breaks free from any stricture of being a National Allegory. Secondly, by refusing to engage in questions of mere representation while being representative but by reemphasising the need for action, it breaks out in creating a praxis for social change

Description