Aabir Sen

My interest lies in the quilting point between literature, ludology, and psychoanalysis. While I look at how a ludic element underscores the structure of all literature—whether it be the riddle or the video game—I also investigate why Lacanian psychoanalysis has a special purchase on how this play element bears out in one’s culturally scripted subjectivity. The questions that principally concern my thesis are whether video games and traditional literary forms are connected via the incorporation of “play,” and whether this very element can make them aid the clinic in fostering the self-reflexivity that the psychoanalytic process aims for.