This thesis is an exploration of the video game Disco Elysium, analyzed through some of the most popular and well-known Modernist works with the goal of proving that Disco Elysium is, at its core, a Modernist work. The incorporation of other Modernist pieces to arrive at this conclusion is mainly to examine reoccurring themes and ideas, some as broad as “obliteration” and others as specific as “identifying with a taxidermy bird after being dissatisfied with the course of one’s life”. In deciding how to structure the analysis, the works of the most prolific Modernist authors were selected with respect to their relationship to Disco Elysium’s core player skills. T. S. Eliot was selected to represent “Intellect”, T. E. Hulme for “Psyche”, and W. B. Yeats for “Physique”. The last skill, “Motorics” was not represented by a specific author but rather acts as a collection of final ideas and themes that help to show Disco Elysium as Modernist in its entirety, not just in select scenes or characters.

Broadly speaking, video games are not typically analyzed in an academic way. Hopefully, the exploration of Disco Elysium alongside Modernist giants like “The Waste Land” demonstrates that this lack of analysis is unwarranted and that video games are worth as deep analysis as any other piece of media. There are countless games just as complex and stimulating as Disco Elysium, waiting patiently to be analyzed. This thesis concludes by stating that Disco Elysium is in fact clearly a Modernist game, and that the themes of fragmentation and obliteration especially are near-perfect fits for discussing many of its most fundamental components: plot, characters, setting, and more.