Machphrasis: Towards a Poetics of Video Games in Contemporary Literary Culture

This article develops Kawika Guillermo's ‘machphrasis’ (2016) as a theoretical contribution to discourse considering the deployment of video games in contemporary literary culture. After presenting machphrasis’ academic stakes, I propose that machphrasis can give explanations for some techniques and images endemic late 20 th /21 st century writing with regards represented prose. By appending conceptual work three additions, towards reproducible poetics game prose writing. will show may be used understand literature proxies anticipated technologies, discursive tools reckoning new subjectivities indebted play, means generating ideological positions those who play but are excluded from normative ‘gamer’ group. prepares current future landscape increasingly beholden machphrastic themes, ambitions, language.