👹A Devious Archive: The Affective Historicity and Paratextual Russian Folkloristics of Black Book
Published in Central and Eastern European Histories and Heritages in Video Games, 2024
Abstract: This chapter delves into the diverse folkloristic archiving surrounding the Slavic and Russian mythology-themed RPG Black Book (Morteshka, 2021). It explores how the artifact-like qualities of historical video games create authentic heritage experiences for players despite potential historical inaccuracies. I draw upon recent scholarship on videogame archives to compare the influence of museums and academic institutions consulted by Black Book’s developers with amateur art historical analyses posted in the game’s Steam forums. Through this comparative analysis, I argue that historical horror games like Black Book serve as “devious archives,” indirectly connecting players to the referenced histories. While conventional engagement with history might involve visiting museums or reading scholarly works, these kinds of indirect, fragmented, and interactive archives offer subjective interpretations and an encyclopedic folkloristic representation, with branching paths for players to selectively engage with their historical material.’
Keywords: Black Book, paratexts, archives, folklore,
Please email me if you are interested in reading a preprint copy of this chapter.
Recommended citation: Bailey, A. (2024). “A devious archive: The affective historicity and paratextual Russian folkloristics of Black Book.” In Central and Eastern European Histories and Heritages in Video Games, edited by Michał Mochocki, Paweł Schreiber, Jakub Majewski, Yaraslau I. Kot, Routledge. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003461326-5/devious-archive-andrew-bailey