I completed my doctorate in Arabic studies on Libyan-Arabic concentration camp poetry and am currently a consultant for digital research services at the Hamburg State and University Library. In addition to the interface work between academic libraries and digital humanities, I am particularly interested in critical infrastructure research and the examination of academic codes, practices and rituals. I am also interested in how human abysses, apocalyptic ideas and dystopian scenarios are negotiated multimodally, for example in literature or games. A critical and inter-/non-disciplinary view and the subversion of established disciplinary boundaries are just as important to me as the challenge of academic-hierarchical working methods with a strong focus on collaboration independent of status.
How much apocalypse in the apocalypse? On the revelational Aspect of Apocalyptic Concepts in (post-)apocalyptic Games.
FROG 2024 – Talk
In popular fiction, “apocalypse” is typically associated with destruction, doomsday, death, or annihilation. This notion extends to post-apocalyptic settings, which often focus on survival or rebuilding life in a devastated world. Notable examples in gaming include the Fallout series, Frostpunk, The Surge, The Last of Us, and Days Gone.
However, viewing the apocalypse solely as a destructive event and the subsequent survival phase as “post-apocalyptic” oversimplifies the concept. Originally, the term “apocalypse” (from the Greek ἀποκάλυψις, meaning “revelation”) refers to an event that reveals the true nature of something. In religious contexts, it describes a deity revealing itself to humanity, often leading to a transition to a new, perfect world, the process usually accompanied by significant trials, severe battles and suffering. Thus, the apocalyptic concept encompasses both destruction and revelation. However, this processual nature of the apocalyptic event, as well as its revelatory nature, is often completely ignored in games that are labeled as (post-)apocalyptic.
In my talk, I will explore how (post-)apocalyptic games either embrace (e.g., A Plague Tale: Requiem) or overlook (e.g., Fallout 4) this broader understanding of the apocalypse, and where the revelatory nature of the apocalypse takes a more nuanced and differentiated form (e.g., The Last of Us, Part 2). In addition, I will examine how the notion of the “post-apocalyptic” aligns with, but often fails to fully acknowledge, the eschatological framework.
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