Thesis
It is DONE! Finished. *cheers*
Not sure if I want to post it, now that it's all written, but going to put up the abstract, just so you can see how it turned out in the end. After that, we'll see. Then going to bed. OMG! Sleep! I can has it!
Abstract
This dissertation seeks to answer the research question: how do roleplay characters allow players of Dungeons and Dragons to experiment with subject positions alternative to their own? This question is answered in two parts, with the theoretical exegesis The Way the Magic Works: Using Characters to Explore Subjectivity in Dungeons and Dragons and the creative nonfiction piece I Have a Demon and I’m Not Afraid to Use Her.
The Way the Magic Works sets out an exploration of gaming and subjectivity, in order to analyse some of the ways in which roleplay games allow for identity experimentation. The exegesis also investigates the ways in which the existence of a gaming community supports the construction of experimental alternative subject positions. Finally, the exegesis of the dissertation sets out a rationale for the deployment, in the creative section, of the mode of creative nonfiction.
I Have a Demon and I’m Not Afraid to Use Her is a creative nonfiction narrative that explores my own experience of playing Dungeons and Dragons in character. It articulates the understandings gained from the research in a form accessible to a wide, non-specialist reader. To that end, it constructs a first person narration that makes concrete the game/character/player/community relationships theorised in the exegesis.