%0 Journal Article
%T The Text/Reader Interface: From Videogames to Literature L¡¯interfaccia testo/lettore: dal videogame alla letteratura
%A Marco Caracciolo
%J Between
%D 2011
%I Universit¨¤ degli studi di Cagliari
%X This essay explores the relationship between the reader¡¯s engagement with literature, and in particular with narrative texts, and the player¡¯s interaction with videogames. It builds on the concept of ¡°interface,¡± arguing that in videogames the interface is the layer (both physical and conceptual) that enables players to intervene meaningfully in the game world. According to recent, second-generation cognitive science, meaning is grounded in the embodied interaction between an organism and its environment; it is such basic meaning that players generate by acting on the interface of the game. The interface can, then, be thought of as a hermeneutic space. The author goes on to argue that this approach can be applied, with important modifications, to print narratives. In his theory of ¡°negativity,¡± Wolfgang Iser came very close to the idea that texts have an interface through which readers can participate in the meaning-making process. Despite being conceptually mediated and propositional, interpretive meanings are derived from simple, embodied interactions with an environment. This is why, the author concludes, playing a videogame can be seen as a metaphor for the way readers play with the meanings of a story, within the text¡¯s hermeneutic space. This essay explores the relationship between the reader¡¯s engagement with literature, and in particular with narrative texts, and the player¡¯s interaction with videogames. It builds on the concept of ¡°interface,¡± arguing that in videogames the interface is the layer (both physical and conceptual) that enables players to intervene meaningfully in the game world. According to recent, second-generation cognitive science, meaning is grounded in the embodied interaction between an organism and its environment; it is such basic meaning that players generate by acting on the interface of the game. The interface can, then, be thought of as a hermeneutic space. The author goes on to argue that this approach can be applied, with important modifications, to print narratives. In his theory of ¡°negativity,¡± Wolfgang Iser came very close to the idea that texts have an interface through which readers can participate in the meaning-making process. Despite being conceptually mediated and propositional, interpretive meanings are derived from simple, embodied interactions with an environment. This is why, the author concludes, playing a videogame can be seen as a metaphor for the way readers play with the meanings of a story, within the text¡¯s hermeneutic space.
%K Videogames
%K narrativa
%K interfaccia
%K interpretazione
%K significato corporeo
%U http://ojs.unica.it/index.php/between/article/view/103