Description
The Legend of Zelda series is one of the most popular and recognizable examples in videogames of what Tolkien referred to as mythopoeia, or myth-making. In his essay On Fairy Stories and a short poem entitled Mythopoeia, Tolkien makes the case that the fairy tale aesthetic is simply a more intimate version of the same principle underlying the great myths: the human desire to make meaning out of the world. By using mythopoeia as a touchstone concept, the essays in this volume explore how The Legend of Zelda series turns the avatar, through which the player interacts with the in-game world, into a player-character symbiote wherein the individual both enacts and observes the process of integrating worldbuilding with storytelling. Twelve essays explore Zelda’s mythmaking from the standpoints of literary criticism, videogame theory, musicology, ecocriticism, pedagogy, and more.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Zelda, Mythopoeia, and the Importance of Developing an "Inside" Perspective on Videogames
Anthony G. Cirilla
Foundations: Mythmakers and Myth-Players
Chapter 1. Digital Mythopoeia: Exploring modern myth-making in The Legend of Zelda
Alicia Fox-Lenz
Chapter 2. Extrapolative Silence in Mythopoeic Spectacle, or, Why does Link Look so Bored?
Thomas Rowland
Chapter 3 Curiositas and Critical Glitches: Speedrunning The Legend of Zelda
Ethan Smilie
The Legend of Zelda: Entrance into Mythopoeic Structure
Chapter 4. The Hero of Faёrie: The Triforce and Transformational Play in Link’s Mythopoeic Journey
Anthony G. Cirilla
Chapter 5. Twilight and Faërie: The Music of Twilight Princess as Tolkienesque Nostalgia
Vincent E. Rone
Chapter 6. The Domestic Champion in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
Michael David Elam
There’s Something Mything Here: Problems of Counter-Structure or Contra-Structure in Zelda’s Mythopoeic Methods
Chapter 7. "You Played the Ocarina Again, Didn’t You!!": Catastrophe and the Aesthetics of Evil in Ocarina of Time
Nathan Schmidt
Chapter 8. A Link Across Adventures: Literacy’s Relevance to Time in The Legend of Zelda Series’ Mythopoeia
Matthew Sautman
Chapter 9. Haunted by Heroes: Mythology & Hauntology in The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s MaskDamian Asling
The Legend of Pedagogy: Theory and Practice
Chapter 10. The Hero of Time: The Legend of Zelda as Children’s Literature
Chamutal Noimann & Elliot H. Serkin
Chapter 11. Take Away the Sword: Teaching for Creativity and Communication with the Legend of Zelda in Art History
David Boffa
Chapter 12. Regenerative Play and the Experience of the Sublime in The Legend of Zelda:Breath of the Wild
Gerald Farca
Alexander Lehner
Victor Navarro-Remesal
