"But Maybe They Should Feel Lost": Magical Literariness in the Computer Game Kentucky Route Zero

Abstract: This thesis investigates the poetical interplays of the contemporary magical realist computer game Kentucky Route Zero. Through the notion of literariness coined by the Russian formalists, the work centers on the ways the game operates with the established conventions of magical realism. The theory of intermediality, with its concepts of media modalities, media representation and transmediation, introduced by Lars Elleström, foregrounds the underlying connectedness of Kentucky Route Zero with older media – early instances of computer games – and with the discussed literary style. Text-world theory, outlined by Alison Gibbons and Sarah Whiteley, allows locating and analyzing the idiosyncratic presence of magical realism in the game. As the analysis demonstrates, the realization of magical realism in the game performs a subversive role by destabilizing the aspects of linearity and progression, important for games of the same genre. This, in turn, composes an overarching theme of Kentucky Route Zero – nostalgia; the theme that runs both through the stylistic features of the game and through its content.