Das narrative Prinzip des ‚finalen Erzählens‘, das eine Erzählung vom Ende her motiviert, wurde bisher vor allem an vormodernen Texten untersucht und beschrieben. In ‚What remains of Edith Finch‘ als Computerspiel über den Tod und das Erzählen vom Tod wird diese Finalität zum entscheidenden narrativen Strukturprinzip. Die Verknüpfung von Inhalt und Erzählweise stellt dabei nur eine von vielen Parallelen zu mittelalterlichen Heiligenlegenden dar. Der Artikel untersucht Analogien der narrativen Struktur zwischen legendarischem Erzählen und ‚What remains of Edith Finch‘ und stellt sich dabei die Frage, wie das narrative Prinzip der Finalität in ganz unterschiedlichen Medien auch überzeitlich funktionieren kann.
The narrative orientation of telling a story from the end (‘finales Erzählen’) has mostly been examined and described for premodern texts. ‘What remains of Edith Finch’ as a computer game about death and narrating about death sets this finality as its determining narrative structure. The resulting intertwining of storyline and narrative style is just one parallel that can be drawn to medieval stories about saints. The article aims to investigate analogies between these stories and ‘What remains of Edith Finch’ and raises the question how finality can function as a timeless narrative principle even in very different media.
The narrative orientation of telling a story from the end (‘finales Erzählen’) has mostly been examined and described for premodern texts. ‘What remains of Edith Finch’ as a computer game about death and narrating about death sets this finality as its determining narrative structure. The resulting intertwining of storyline and narrative style is just one parallel that can be drawn to medieval stories about saints. The article aims to investigate analogies between these stories and ‘What remains of Edith Finch’ and raises the question how finality can function as a timeless narrative principle even in very different media.
