Literature, Videogames and Learning

Andrew Burn's rich and nuanced new book offers a meditation on the relationship between games and literature, considering what gets learned when students interpret classic works such as Beowulf and Macbeth through computer games. Along the way, he maps an ambitious and eclectic conceptual framework from multimodal analysis. This book makes valuable contributions to our understanding of the nature of literacies (old and new). Henry Jenkins, Provost Professor of Communication, Journalism, and Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California. The most innovative proposal for reforming English classrooms yet proposed. We have tended to think of literature as content and games as activities. Andrew Burn shows us how to make literature come alive not just as words but as playful deeds and design. In the act, he is creating a whole new field. James Paul Gee, Mary Lou Fulton Presidential Professor of Literacy Studies; Regents' Professor, Arizona State University (retired) Scholars, creators, critics, and consumers of media divide their attention into categories that feel natural-film, book, game. But the walls between them are also arbitrary. In this book, Andrew Burn demolishes and rebuilds them, showing how all media are made of play, and play can become a new lens for teaching, understanding, and enjoying them. Ian Bogost, Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts Distinguished Chair in Media Studies, Georgia Institute of Technology. This book brings into focus profound and important insights into powerful links between the seemingly antithetical worlds of Literature and videogames. Grounded in deep knowledge of both, and of young people, pedagogy and curriculum, this book brings together decades of research with schools and major cultural institutions. It shows in practice how games and literature can work together, with students as active makers in creative and productive ways. A major contribution from Andrew Burn, the foremost figure in this field, it presents a rich vision of the future of Subject English, and contemporary forms of communication, imagination and play. Catherine Beavis, Professor Emerita of Education, Deakin University, Australia