Playing with Suicide: Untimely Wanderings with Suicidality

Venn, Jon (2026) Playing with Suicide: Untimely Wanderings with Suicidality. In: The Bloomsbury Handbook to Madness in Literature and Visual Culture. Bloomsbury, London. (Submitted)

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Abstract

In contemporary suicidology and suicidal discourse, the timing of suicide is focussed on the event of the suicide attempt and is fundamentally conceived in manner of prevention (whether through prevention, intervention, or postvention). This chapter argues for the value of contemporary videogames as medium to elicit different forms of suicidal temporality, away from a purely preventative focus. It examines two examples of the genre of ‘walking simulator’, Dear Esther and The Longest Walk, and considers how they reorientate the timing of the suicidal walk. Building on Lisa Baraitsar’s concern with suspended timings, it argues the performance of the suicidal walk in these games veer away from a singular path of the suicidal, instead evoking the suicidal wander, with a focus on delay, repetition, and recalling. In doing so, the games offer a new mode through which to imagine the timings of suicidality, and to (if a step behind) walk ‘with’ suicide.

Item Type:	Book Section
Divisions:	Politics and Socially-engaged practice
Depositing User:	Dr Jon Venn
Date Deposited:	19 Mar 2026 16:28
Last Modified:	19 Mar 2026 16:28
URI:	https://bruford.repository.guildhe.ac.uk/id/eprint/87

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