The Roots of Our World: A Cultural and Aesthetic History of The Soulsborne Video Games
The Roots of Our World: A Cultural and Aesthetic History of The Soulsborne Video Games
- Date:
- Saturday, July 27, 2024
- Time:
- 1:00pm - 2:00pm
- Location:
- South Meeting Room - Full Room
- Location:
- South Regional Library (4505 S. Alston Ave)
- Audience:
- Adult Emerging Adult: 18-24 Year Olds High School Senior Citizen Teen
- Categories:
- Gaming Humanities Other
The Soulsborne video games by FromSoftware have consistently been a popular and critical success, from the release of Dark Souls in 2011 to the upcoming Shadow of the Erdtree, a DLC for 2022’s Elden Ring. In this talk, David Hall will discuss the origins of the Soulsborne series, from Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Shadows of Colossus to the Meiji Restoration in 19th century Japan. He will explore how these games reflect on and critique the historical reception of Western aesthetics and literature in Japan, and the community of players that has emerged as a result. Despite their difficult gameplay and bleak narrative, the games ultimately argue for a gentler, more caring world.
David Hall is a PhD candidate and Assistant Director of the Critical Game Studies Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In that role he has helped establish the study of video games at UNC by creating the first game-based classroom and a wide curriculum of courses centering the analysis of games, culminating in a new minor in Critical Game Studies due to be launched in 2026. David's research focuses on the historical development of genre, queer narrative temporalities, and community meaning-making in video games. His prospective dissertation is an examination of Fromsoftware’s Soulsborne series as a radical intervention into the Western aesthetic tradition from a uniquely Japanese perspective.