Pogrywanie w romantyzm
Playing with Romanticism

Author(s): Tomasz Gruszczyk
Subject(s): Studies of Literature, Culture and social structure , Theory of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: playing/gaming; romanticism; tragic character; making choices
Summary/Abstract: This article is an attempt to present the re-emergence of the Romantic symbolic paradigm in contemporary culture in an unusual form of play, or, a game. The author illustrates this phenomenon with Agnieszka Słodownik, Michał Danielewicz and Michał Szota’s interactive narrative entitled "ashes◀▷ diamonds", which is a digital, playable adaptation of Andrzej Wajda’s movie „Ashes and Diamonds” (being an adaptation itself of Jerzy Andrzejewski’s literary work). Their digital work uses Andrzejewski’s and Wajda’s plot and characters, but first of all, it adapts a certain problem, vision, idea, and the concept of the world with human and ethical values which are derived from the Romantic tradition. The game’s mechanics contemporizes them and uses them to transform the protagonist – and the gamer as well – into a tragic figure who is trapped in a world of Romantic myths and unable to make the right choice. The interpretation proposed by the author of this article allows him to consider the re-emergence of Romantic symbols and myths in contemporary cultural texts and performative (individual and collective) acts as examples of playing, gaming, and acting.

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