Hazards of Virtualization: Abjectification and Immersion in Cyberpunk 2077

Through understanding the process of postmodernity as a transitionary period, this paper explores the representation of the postmodern identity crisis within CD Projekt Red’s video game Cyberpunk 2077. It is contrasted with Heiner Müller’s drama Hamletmachine, through the theory of the semiotics of the subject. Focusing on Julia Kristeva’s theory of the abject, the analysis examines how these works reflect on their respective cultural paradigm shifts and represent the changing tendencies regarding the constitution of the socially positioned human subject. Hamletmachine establishes Hamlet as a self-conflicting subject within a postmodern framework and introduces the machine as an abject entity, while Cyberpunk 2077 immerses players in an interactive narrative that challenges their socially defined subject positions.

Keywords: escapism, abject, postsemiotics, posthumanism, virtualization