The Death of Language: Listening to the Echoes (of Georges Bataille) in "Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II—The Sith Lords"

Marcin Hanuszkiewicz

doi:10.18778/2083-2931.10.16

Authors

Marcin Hanuszkiewicz University of Silesia, Katowice https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3392-6769

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/2083-2931.10.16

Keywords:

Georges Bataille, Kreia, language, Star Wars, Knights of the Old Republic

Abstract

This article is, firstly, an analysis of Kreia, a character from the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II—The Sith Lords video game, a character whose role in the game is pivotal: the conversations the player has with Kreia serve as the main narrative basis for the entire game experience. Secondly, on the basis of a collection of quotations from these conversations, this article juxtaposes Kreia and Georges Bataille. An intriguing variant of the blind seer trope is revealed in Kreia through studying the game’s poetics, in which a focus on the sense of hearing is discerned. Kreia and Bataille are compared in their understandings of the universe, and a similarity between their ulterior motives is discovered: both of them struggled against something which was considered to be an inextricable element of their respective universes.

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Author Biography

Marcin Hanuszkiewicz, University of Silesia, Katowice

Marcin Hanuszkiewicz is a PhD student in literary studies at the University of Silesia. His research interests include the more experimental strains of literature, philosophy, and other creative practices, as well as mythology (in its widest sense), sound studies and semiotics. He has published papers on subjects such as aural meditation, (im)mortality in transhumanism, and defamiliarizing oneself with one’s origins.

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