Virtual Reality Narration: Listening to and Reliving Stories Through First-Person Testimony

This chapter interrogates the affective communication of first-person testimony in VR experiences by examining the inclusion of voiceover narration and game devices in three documentary-based works. This is undertaken with reference to ‘voice’ and ‘focalisation’, two key concepts explored by literary theorist Gerard Genette, which are reconsidered for the 360-degree VR medium. Additionally, user positioning in relation to story agents is explored. Building on existing scholarship, the chapter presents a taxonomy of user positioning within VR narratives that foregrounds the centrality of the user—as observer or explorer at the centre of the storyworld—and reinforces the first-person perspective of the medium.