Metamodern Gaming: Literary Analysis of The Last of Us

Abstract

Among numerous ways to describe the culture and literature after postmodernism metamodern is becoming more and more popular. Its main features – oscillation, affect, desire for structure and (re)construction etc. – appear in many products of contemporary culture. This article reflects the endeavour to apply metamodernism and its trends to the literary analysis of cybertext. Crucial trends of metamodernism are briefly described and implemented in the analysis of a video game. The features of cybertext that influence the analysis are considered. All these instruments were used to show the metamodern nature of the game by Naughty Dog, The Last of Us (2013). The article attempts to analyze a cybertext through the methods of literary analysis and reveal metamodern ideas in The Last of Us using main metamodern categories as a tool for text study.