Fragmented Detectives: Postmodern Subjectivity and the Rewriting of Detective Rationality in Disco Elysium
Author
Lauesgaard, Thomas
Term
4. term
Education
Publication year
2026
Pages
62
Abstract
This thesis reads the role-playing game Disco Elysium (ZA/UM, 2019) as a narrative text and investigates how it challenges the epistemological foundations of classical detective fiction through its construction of subjectivity, ideology, institutional authority, and player interpretation. Drawing on narratology, postmodern theory, and game studies—particularly Genette on focalization, Bakhtin on polyphony, and Aarseth and Juul on games—the study conducts a theory-led close reading of the game’s dialogue, narration, internal monologue, and skill system to demonstrate how literary methods apply to an interactive work. The analysis proceeds along four lines: it foregrounds uncertainty over resolution; shows the protagonist’s mind as split into competing voices; examines how ideology, psychology, class, and history shape experience; and explores how institutions fail to guarantee truth. The findings indicate that Disco Elysium replaces the rational, autonomous detective with a fragmented, historically mediated subject and renders knowledge provisional rather than definitive. In doing so, the game not only revises genre conventions but reconfigures the detective genre’s logic of inquiry, illustrating that contemporary video games can function as complex narrative works amenable to literary-critical analysis.
Dette speciale læser rollespillet Disco Elysium (ZA/UM, 2019) som en narrativ tekst og undersøger, hvordan det udfordrer den klassiske detektivgenres epistemologiske grundlag gennem sin iscenesættelse af subjektivitet, ideologi, institutionel autoritet og spillerens fortolkning. Med afsæt i narratologi, postmoderne teori og spilforskning—bl.a. Genettes fokalisering, Bakhtins polyfoni samt Aarseth og Juul om spil—gennemfører studiet en teoriinformeret næranalyse af spillets dialog, fortællerstemme, indre monolog og færdighedssystem for at vise, hvordan litterære metoder kan anvendes på et interaktivt værk. Analysen følger fire spor: usikkerhed prioriteres frem for løsning; hovedpersonens bevidsthed er splittet i konkurrerende stemmer; ideologi, psykologi, klasse og historie former erfaring; og institutioner svigter som garanter for sandhed. Resultaterne peger på, at Disco Elysium erstatter den rationelle, autonome detektiv med et fragmenteret, historisk medieret subjekt og gør viden foreløbig frem for endelig. Dermed reviderer spillet ikke blot genrekonventioner, men omkoder selve detektivfortællingens undersøgelseslogik og viser, at moderne videospil kan fungere som komplekse narrative værker, der tåler litterær-kritisk analyse.
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