Narratological Analysis of Critical Dystopia in the Video Game Inside Based on Tom Moylan’s Theory

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Assistant Professor in Department of Media Arts, Religion and Media Faculty, IRIB University, Qom, Iran

2 Master's student in Dramatic Literature, Faculty of Religion and Media, IRIB University, Qom, Iran

Abstract

The expansion of video games as a contemporary form of artistic expression has created new possibilities for reconsidering narrative and genre concepts within the field of performing arts. Among these genres, dystopia has gained particular significance in narratological studies due to its critical capacity to represent power relations, social control, and the crisis of modern human identity. The present study examines how critical dystopia is constructed in the video game Inside and explains its narrative mechanisms based on Tom Moylan’s theory of critical dystopia. The main research question investigates how dystopian narration in this work is formed through artistic and spatial elements and how it relates to the concept of critical dystopia. The study aims to analyze environmental storytelling structures, spatial organization, character embodiment, and processes of meaning production in the game world as an artistic and performative text. This research adopts a qualitative methodology with an analytical–interpretive approach grounded in narrative analysis, in which data were extracted and interpreted through a systematic reading of the game text. The findings indicate that Inside, through the elimination of verbal narration, the use of controlled architecture, the design of a vulnerable body, and an open-ended conclusion, realizes the model of critical dystopia. In this work, narration emerges not through a traditional plot structure but through spatial and performative experience. The study concludes that video games, similar to contemporary performing arts, can function as artistic platforms for the critical representation of power relations and for producing dystopian narratives within an interactive experiential framework.

Keywords

Volume 17, Issue 46
September 2026
Pages 74-90

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics