Panel for the 2026 Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA) Convention
March 5–8, 2026 | Pittsburgh, PA
Wyndham Grand Downtown, at the Point
More information: https://www.nemla.org/convention/future.html

The Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA) is a professional organization composed of teachers, scholars, and students of literature, language, and culture. Games are increasingly a subject of scholarly interest at our conferences, yet they are often treated as distinct from literature—while Game Design, and even Game Studies within the Digital Humanities, are typically housed in separate subfields. Given how many literary works centrally feature games (or game-adjacent forms like riddles and labyrinths) it is curious that more overlap hasn’t developed between literary criticism and the practical study of play. This is largely because when games appear in literature, they are treated as metaphors or thematic devices, rather than as autonomous entities coexisting within the work. As such, these diegetic games may carry messages and meanings of their own. 

What happens when stories contain games? Should we not use the disciplinary lens of game design or game studies to "read" diegetic games on their own terms? In other words, what happens when we stop treating the games in fiction as metaphors, and instead take them seriously as designs?This panel seeks papers that treat embedded games like duels, lotteries, or labyrinths as meaningful systems within fiction, using tools from game studies, design, and narrative theory.

In works where the game is sufficiently described, its meaning (independent of the literary elements in its context) might function in support of, in tension with, or in contrast to the work's literary aspects. By focusing on the games themselves, scholars can apply the disciplinary lens of game studies or game design to assess the games within the stories on their own terms. To explore that idea, this session invites papers that examine works (of any medium) which contain diegetic games, with a focus on a reading of the game itself. 

To offer a brief example, the fencing match in Hamlet can be considered in terms of the real-world conventions of fencing; focusing more narrowly on those conventions may reveal meanings otherwise occluded by the broader dramatic or symbolic dimensions. Similarly, game-adjacent phenomena (such as the labyrinth in Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose or the titular lottery in Shirley Jackson's story) may be read as part of the designed medium of games, carrying messages that support, counterpoint, or simply coexist within the authored medium of the larger work. Such perspectives could suggest any number of new ways to read, and might form the basis of critical observations on the text, or just the game within it, or both. 

To clarify: we’re especially interested in games that are depicted within the work—whether played by characters or embedded as recognizable systems. This panel is not focused on formal or linguistic play, metafictional tricks, or general reader interactivity. 

This panel aims to bring together interdisciplinary approaches, including but not limited to game studies, narrative theory, cultural analysis, and media studies. Put more plainly, we’re looking for 15-minute paper presentations that focus on a game appearing within a work of any other medium. In-person presentations are ideal, but the conference is hybrid, so remote submissions are also welcome.