Transcodification and synthesis of social, psychological and cultural isolation in sci fi narratives: from literature to video games

Abstract

This study intends to observe and investigate the concept of isolation with a transmediality perspective, opening the analysis to multiple access points for the study of original forms of adaptation and an approach to phenomena of narrative synthesis and transcoding (Jenkins, 2016). Defined as “exclusion, by desire or circumstance, from relationships or contact with the usual environment” (Cacioppo et. al., 2011), isolation is a concept that has been absorbed by the science fiction genre and adapted within different media, through original narratives that revolve around humans – conceived as “human beings”. The concept of isolation is declined in stories and media from multiple perspectives; this contribution focuses on three types of isolation and their interpretation and exposition within three different cultural products: social isolation, present within the novel The Postman (David Brin, 1985); psychological isolation, as proposed by the Japanese animation series Neon Genesis Evangelion (Hideaki Anno, 1995); and cultural isolation, and its exegesis in the video game Death Stranding (Sony Interactive Entertainment, 2019).
The aim of the contribution is to provide a reconstruction and chronological mapping regarding the declination of the concept of isolation through the three texts, according to a Hegelian logic that sees in the third text the synthesis of the previous ones. From literature to video game, through transmediality approach, it will be possible to highlight how the narrative designed and implemented by each of the three texts is structured through multiple levels that configure different interpretative dimensions, ludic-performative realities and reading levels concerning the role and meaning of the human being in contemporary society. To read David Brin’s novel, to watch Hideaki Anno’s series or to play and experience Death Stranding is to understand altruism and face isolation, actions that are currently as necessary as ever in the reality of the contemporary world.