A Dialectical Analysis of the Relationship Between Form and Meaning in Interactive Narratives Based on Hegel’s Philosophy: The Unity of Idea and Embodiment in Video Games

Razizadeh, Ali

doi:10.22059/jop.2026.397762.1006913

A Dialectical Analysis of the Relationship Between Form and Meaning in Interactive Narratives Based on Hegel’s Philosophy: The Unity of Idea and Embodiment in Video Games

Document Type : Scientific-research

Author

Ali Razizadeh

Assistant Professor in Department of Media Arts, Religion and Media Faculty, IRIB University, Qom, Iran

10.22059/jop.2026.397762.1006913

Abstract

In Hegel’s aesthetics, art is not merely the representation of the Idea, but a moment in which the Idea is actualized in a sensuous and formal configuration. The internal unity of content and form, conceived as the embodiment of the Idea, is the fundamental criterion of artistic authenticity. This study aims to investigate the possibility of realizing this dialectical unity within a novel framework of aesthetic experience. Accordingly, the central question of this article is how, in contemporary interactive art forms, particularly in interactive narratives within video games, the Idea might emerge not through representational form, but through lived and participatory experience. The research adopts a philosophical-conceptual method grounded in dialectical analysis and comparative interpretation, drawing on core Hegelian notions such as Idea, embodiment, negation, necessity in form, and the transition from sense to spirit. The findings suggest that when a work’s form is constructed as temporally extended, nonlinear, and interactive, it can enable a mode of dialectical awareness in which meaning is not pre-given but generated through the subject’s active engagement with form. In certain cases, breakdowns in narrative coherence, structural dissonance, or the absence of language foster philosophical reflection on limits, and this negative truth itself may signify a mode of the Idea’s realization. Thus, Hegelian aesthetics may be conceptually extended to analyze emergent artistic forms without abandoning its foundational principles.

Keywords

Dialectical Aesthetics

Hegelian Philosophy

Unity of Idea and Embodiment

Video Game Studies

Interactive Narrative

Subjects

philosophy

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