Performative reckoning: memory, puppets, and avatars
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This article examines the intersection of historical memory, trauma, death, and the undead through Detention (2017), a horror video game set during Taiwan’s White Terror—a period of political repression and persecution. Drawing on Alison Landsberg’s prosthetic memory, I analyze how the game uses puppets and avatars to create affective, malleable histories that challenge monolithic understandings of the past, particularly for post-national trauma generations. In Detention, puppets embody victims who were dehumanized under authoritarian rule; their silent yet resilient presence mirrors the tenacity of the oppressed. Through these figures, players enter an uncanny realm that bridges the living and the dead, the present and the past. Just as puppets are extensions of their puppeteers, avatars represent the player’s alterity. Game-playing and role-playing become performative reenactments of history in virtual space that challenge players to confront the past while maintaining a meta-awareness of the game’s virtuality and fictionality. The avatar’s capacity to repeat and replay events invites players to confront historical trauma and navigate agency while remaining aware of the game’s virtuality and fictionality. Detention demonstrates how video games can function as performative mediums for reenacting trauma, rendering history both immersive and accessible while revealing the layered complexities of collective memory.
Author: Chee-Hann Wu
Institution: New York University
Language: English
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4415775243