Extending the Conversation about Gone Home
The goal of this project is simple: to expand upon the existing conversation about Gone Home in a way that matters. There are four essential steps:
- Summarize the current conversation about the angle of Gone Home you’re addressing.
- Show how that conversation either ignores important issues, doesn’t go far enough, or is simply wrong.
- Intervene with your contribution, backed up by evidence from Gone Home.
- Demonstrate why your contribution is important and to whom.
What “angles” should you address?
With a game like Gone Home, there are countless possibilities. Including but not limited to the following: family relationships; queer identity; Gothic horror and haunted houses; the role of indie art and music; the narrative architecture of the game; the historical context of the 90s; Gone Home as archive; the intertextual web Gone Home weaves; the breakdown of gender binaries; narrative strategies in Gone Home; Gone Home and documentary evidence; hacking or modding Gone Home; & etc.
You might also consider the intersection of several of these angles as itself a worthwhile angle.
Whatever angle you choose, be attentive to the visual, sonic, interactive and narrative elements of Gone Home, and how they interact with each other.
What’s this about a conversation?
Scholars, bloggers, and fans have written a great deal about Gone Home. As an indie game made by former industry insiders, Gone Home has generated an enormous amount of interest. There is legitimate debate about the game, with differing perspectives about its politics, narrative strategies, and meanings. You cannot hope to summarize every side of this discussion, which is why you are focusing on only one angle of Gone Home.
For this paper you must integrate at least four scholarly sources in a substantive way. “Substantive” doesn’t mean merely quoting at length. There are many ways to integrate outside voices besides lengthy quotes. Paraphrasing and singling out a key phrase are just two alternatives among many. You’ll use at least some of these voices as a way to set up the contours of the conversation you’re entering into.
Important Dates
- Draft of 1,250 words is due via shared Google Doc on Monday, December 5
- Between December 5 and 7 we will meet one-on-one instead of as a class to talk about your drafts
- Final Version due by December 15