Toward a hermeneutic narratology of interactive digital storytelling

Abstract

This paper attempts to frame a hermeneutic narratology of interactive digital storytelling in light of Paul Ricoeur’s philosophy and the narratology of the French New Rhetoric. For starters, I propose to bring to light an underlying rationale to demonstrate the significance of interactive storytelling in videogames that go beyond entertainment. This rationale rejoins the perennial ontological and epistemological questions. I will then analyze how the threefold mimesis functions par excellence in interactive storytelling. Lastly, my theoretical framing will be completed with the praxis dimension of mimesis, a discussion of semiotic and morphological orientation for emplotment, for future digital poiesis.