On Genre Theory and Popular Arts

Abstract

Computer Games have long been viewed as a preparatory hell for juvenile deliquents before they blossom into rampage killers. But this view has changed not the least because nowadays most people under 30 have actively played games. Nevertheless there still seems to be a deep gap between computer games and art. My talk will try to close the gap by using concepts developed in the studies of popular culture to describe the new and already famous game S.T.A.L.K.E.R. in relation to the paradigms of the ego-shooter genre. In contrast to the Cultural Studies approach and their focus on the reception process, this talk will focus on the game and view it as a work of modern popular art and try to contribute to a hermeneutics of this kind of art.