Cultural Languages of Role-Playing

"Cultural Languages of Role-Playing" argues that live action role-playing games, or larps, operate as cultural languages in which participants draw on shared codes, collective memory, literary references, folklore, and stereotypes to generate meaning that goes beyond ordinary speech. Grounded in semiotic theory from Lotman, Barthes, and Fine and in memory studies associated with the Assmanns, the authors frame larp as a secondary modeling system that repurposes existing cultural materials through embodied, multimodal face-to-face interaction. The central claim is that role-playing functions as a space of cultural bricolage in which participants construct and recognize identities in real time.

The argument is developed through qualitative ethnographic analysis of Bulgarian larp scenes, including participant observation, audio and video recording, and post-game discussion. Three case studies anchor the analysis: a mage-dragon encounter, scenes that employ literary classics as plot devices, and the use of stereotyped characters. The most significant finding is that larp produces a "creolisation of semiotic structures," in which high-culture references, including the European literary canon and Bulgakov's novel, are absorbed into popular, interactive culture and recombined with fantasy literature and folklore.

The study's scope is narrow in geography and time, focusing on Bulgarian larp practice and centering on a 2010 game, and its methodology is interpretive rather than quantitative. Its conclusions emphasize that interpretation and meaning-making are central to understanding larp cultures, which the authors describe as interconnected systems of shared codes. The reference list draws on game studies, sociolinguistics, folklore, and discourse analysis, and a closing author note identifies Angelina Ilieva, a Senior Assistant Professor at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, who is writing a book on Bulgarian larp culture.