Chris Carbonaro studied at the Institute for European Ethnology and Cultural Analysis, LMU Munich, completing his master’s in 2014 with a thesis on digital gaming spaces and socioculturally produced reality. He continued to work at the department as a lecturer, researcher, and administrator. In spring 2023, he defended his doctoral dissertation on protest practices under the label “Anonymous” at the online/offline intersection. Fascinated by digital and analog games since playing Tetris on his grandfather’s Gameboy in the mid-90s, Chris has a strong academic and personal interest in strategic and narrative-heavy games, including ‘classic’ pen-and-paper role-playing games, and competitive multiplayer titles.
Those Who Live in Death – A Hauntological Approach to Elden Ring’s Eternal Post-Apocalyptic World
FROG 2024 – Talk
“A spectre is haunting Europe – the spectre of communism” proclaims the opening line to the Communist Manifesto by Marx and Engels (1848: 14). Looking at the post-apocalyptic world of FromSoftware’s Elden Ring (2022) we could argue that one or even several specters are also haunting The Lands Between and its inhabitants.
The proposed contribution approaches Elden Ring from a cultural anthropologist’s perspective with a focus on the parallels between the ludo-narrative game world or system and contemporary cultural experiences typical for the postmodern era, which might explain part of its appeal.
The theoretical basis for this analysis lies within the terminology of hauntology by Marc Fisher (2012; 2013; 2014), who adapted the concept from Jacques Derrida’s thesis (1995) that even after the fall of the Eastern Bloc the idea of communism will haunt western society and culture. Accordingly, we can understand Elden Ring as a world temporally frozen or displaced – its “time is out of joint” (Derrida: 38) – and befallen by what Fisher diagnosed our current postmodern life under late-capitalism with: “The Slow Cancellation of the Future” (Fisher 2014: 2).
The order of the world is lost through the devastating war of the Shattering and the destruction of the eponymous Elden Ring. The character Radahn literally cancels the future by halting the stars and by the removal of the concept of death not even dying offers change. All that is left to do in The Lands Between is to cling to old beliefs and ideas, the memory of purpose one used to have, but over the course of eons this leads to physical and mental decay, the loss of self and identity, very much akin to Fisher’s pop-cultural analysis of our Zeitgeist.
But Elden Ring’s ludo-narrative design affords its players multiple ways to playfully interact with this hauntological and often depressing experience and even to overcome it. Beginning as “A Tarnished of no renown” (Opening Cinematic) they overcome immense difficulties typical of FromSoftware titles, create humor and companionship despite the game’s bleakness via Multiplayer and online community practices, and reconfigure the game in their imagination through modding and challenge runs.
Literature:
Derrida, Jacques (1995): Marx’ Gespenster – Der verschuldete Staat, die Trauerarbeit und die neue Internationale. Frankfurt a.M.
Fisher, Mark (2012): What is Hauntology?, In: Film Quarterly, Vol. 66 (1), p. 16-24
Fisher, Mark (2013): Kapitalistischer Realismus ohne Alternative? Eine Flugschrift. Hamburg
Fisher, Mark (2014): Ghosts of my Life. Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures. Winchester
Marx, Karl / Engels, Frederick (1848): Manifesto of the Communist Party. In the English Edition published by Marxists Internet Archive (2010), available via: www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/pdf/Manifesto.pdf [26.07.2024]
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