[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-135594-en":3,"doc-seo-135594-105":30,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":91},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":20,"is_downloadable":20,"audit_status":20,"page_count":21,"language":22,"language_code":23,"site_id":24,"html_lang":23,"table_of_contents":25,"faqs":26,"seo_title":27,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":28,"read_time":29},135594,24189269381491,"Bill Black","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/160000cf11732dd8392?x-image-process=image/resize,m_fixed,w_180,h_180&k=1788146458752108895",2,"Literature","Doki Doki Subversion Club! Gothic Ghosts, Uncanny Glitches, and Abject Boundaries","The article investigates the visual novel and dating simulator Doki Doki Literature Club! (Team Salvato, 2017) to show how video games can generate uncanny, gothic, and abject horror texts. Horror emerges through “game breaking” mechanics, including purposeful glitches and moments that transgress boundaries of the operating system. This transgression produces a haunting effect that reaches the player’s computer and home, grounded in the medium’s unique affordances and everyday digital technologies.","Doki Doki Subversion Club! Gothic Ghosts, Uncanny Glitches, and Abject Boundaries  \nMatthew Allan  \nUniversity of Auckland, New Zealand  \nAbstract  \nThis article investigates the visual novel and dating simulator Doki Doki Literature Club! (Team Salvato, 2017) and examines the unique potential of video games as a media form to produce uncanny, gothic, and abject horror texts. In DDLC!, these modes of horror are manifested through “game breaking” mechanics, such as purposeful glitches and moments where the boundaries of the operating system are transgressed. Through this transgression, the game haunts the player’s computer, and by extension, their home. This haunting is achieved through unique aspects of the video game medium as well as the ubiquitous nature of digital technology present in our daily lives and domestic spaces.  \nKeywords  \nUncanny; abject; gothic; operating system; digital space; Doki Doki Literature Club!  \nContent Note  \nThis paper includes discussion of mental health, suicide, and self-harm. Reader discretion is advised.  \nWelcome to the Club  \nAt first glance, Doki Doki Literature Club! (DDLC! hereafter; Team Salvato, 2017) resembles a conventional visual novel and dating simulator (dating sim) . Divided into four acts, the game begins with the player finding themselves in the shoes of a male teenager who joins the titular club at their high school. Through specific choices presented by the game, the player becomes romantically involved with one of the members. Either the seemingly optimistic childhood friend Sayori, the angsty Yuri, or the choleric and snarky Natsuki. The player is also introduced to the confident Monika, who is the club’s leader but cannot be courted. However, the game’s romantic narrative steadily transitions into a nightmarish exploration of adult themes, with depictions of obsession, depression, self-harm, and suicide. In contrast with other visual novels that outwardly belong to the horror genre, such as Saya no Uta (Nitroplus, 2003), Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors (Chunsoft, 2009), and The Letter (Yangyang Mobile, 2017), DDLC! masks itself in alight-hearted facade. Below the bright colours and cheerful music, players will discover an uncanny, gothic, and abject horror game. These specific forms of horror focus on the familiar becoming unfamiliar, achieved through the deployment of ghosts, decay, and that which is“cast off” and blurs boundaries (Baldick, 2008) .  \nDDLC! utilises aspects that are unique to the medium of video games to create its horror experience. These aspects begin appearing after a few in-game days, equating to a couple of hours of playtime, the tipping point being the players’ discovery of Sayori’s dead body. After that point the game begins to simulate glitches, corrupting familiar characters and places, transforming them into unfamiliar distorted versions of themselves. The player later discovers that Monika is responsible for these glitches, as she is “self-aware” of her existence as a video game character and “hacks” the game, creating the digital breakdown.  \nThis terror does not stay within the confines of the game and crosses the boundaries into the player’s computer, producing an abject affect. What starts as humorous fourth-wall breaks, with characters talking directly to the player, quickly descends into moments of immediate horror. Christopher Barkman (2021) describes these fourth wall breaking moments within DDLC! as metalepses, as the game actively taking agency away from the player to “elicit horror and uncertainty”(p. 2) and making its “diegesis… further indistinguishable from its nondiegesis”(p. 14) . By leaving its own confines and entering the player’s operating system (OS), DDLC! makes the player a character within the story, separating them from their in-game counterpart. It is this transgression from immediate to hypermediate, from game to OS, that transforms the up-beat romantic game into a dark, psychological horror story.  \nThe aim of ","cbCaib9KU7MZJXN0","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaib9KU7MZJXN0","pdf",711665,1,19,"English","en",105,"# Welcome to the Club\n## Defining the Club","[{\"question\":\"How does the paper describe DDLC! as uncanny, gothic, and abject horror?\",\"answer\":\"It argues that these horror modes are produced through “game breaking” mechanics like purposeful glitches and boundary transgressions that make familiar spaces and characters become distorted and unfamiliar.\"},{\"question\":\"What role do glitches and the operating system boundary play?\",\"answer\":\"The paper explains that the game simulates glitches that corrupt characters and places, then extends beyond the game into the player’s operating system, making the player a character within the story.\"},{\"question\":\"How is the narrative of romance connected to the shift into horror?\",\"answer\":\"It describes a progression from an upbeat dating-sim facade into adult themes such as obsession, depression, self-harm, and suicide, with horror intensifying after the discovery of Sayori’s dead body.\"}]","Doki Doki Subversion Club! Gothic Ghosts, Uncanny Glitches, and Abject Boundaries | PDF",1787315725,29,{"code":4,"msg":31,"data":32},"ok",{"site_id":24,"language":23,"slug":33,"title":13,"keywords":34,"description":14,"schema_data":35,"social_meta":86,"head_meta":88,"extra_data":90,"updated_unix":28},"doki-doki-subversion-club-gothic-ghosts-uncanny-glitches-and-abject-boundaries","",{"@graph":36,"@context":85},[37,53,68],{"@type":38,"itemListElement":39},"BreadcrumbList",[40,44,47,50],{"item":41,"name":42,"@type":43,"position":20},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":45,"name":46,"@type":43,"position":11},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",{"item":48,"name":12,"@type":43,"position":49},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/literature/",3,{"item":51,"name":13,"@type":43,"position":52},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/doki-doki-subversion-club-gothic-ghosts-uncanny-glitches-and-abject-boundaries/135594/",4,{"url":51,"name":13,"@type":54,"author":55,"headline":13,"publisher":57,"fileFormat":60,"inLanguage":23,"description":14,"dateModified":61,"datePublished":62,"encodingFormat":60,"isAccessibleForFree":63,"interactionStatistic":64},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":56},"Person",{"url":41,"name":58,"@type":59},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-09-05","2026-08-21",true,{"@type":65,"interactionType":66,"userInteractionCount":20},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":67},"ViewAction",{"@type":69,"mainEntity":70},"FAQPage",[71,77,81],{"name":72,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":74},"How does the paper describe DDLC! as uncanny, gothic, and abject horror?","Question",{"text":75,"@type":76},"It argues that these horror modes are produced through “game breaking” mechanics like purposeful glitches and boundary transgressions that make familiar spaces and characters become distorted and unfamiliar.","Answer",{"name":78,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":79},"What role do glitches and the operating system boundary play?",{"text":80,"@type":76},"The paper explains that the game simulates glitches that corrupt characters and places, then extends beyond the game into the player’s operating system, making the player a character within the story.",{"name":82,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":83},"How is the narrative of romance connected to the shift into horror?",{"text":84,"@type":76},"It describes a progression from an upbeat dating-sim facade into adult themes such as obsession, depression, self-harm, and suicide, with horror intensifying after the discovery of Sayori’s dead body.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":51,"og:type":87,"og:title":13,"og:site_name":58,"og:description":14},"article",{"robots":89,"canonical":51},"index,follow",{"doc_id":7,"site_id":24},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":92},[93,97,100,104,109,114,119,124,129,132,136],{"id":20,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":94,"show_sort_weight":95,"slug":96},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":11,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":12,"show_sort_weight":98,"slug":99},80,"literature",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":101,"show_sort_weight":102,"slug":103},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":105,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":106,"show_sort_weight":107,"slug":108},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":110,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":111,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":120,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":121,"show_sort_weight":122,"slug":123},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":125,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":126,"show_sort_weight":127,"slug":128},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":130,"show_sort_weight":127,"slug":131},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":133,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":134,"show_sort_weight":133,"slug":135},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":21,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":137,"show_sort_weight":105,"slug":138},"General","general"]