Leprosy and tarkat: a representation of the disease and the patient in the electronic game Mortal Kombat1 (2023)

Abstract

This study seeks to explore, from a historical perspective, the representation of a disease in the electronic game Mortal Kombat 1(2023). In the game, the fictional “tarkat” disease can be associated with leprosy. Through an analysis of electronic games as a historical source, aligned with the History of Sciences, especially in the debate on the social representations of diseases, the aim is to examine how the narrative of the character Baraka was constructed to address moral and physical issues related to the understanding of the disease and the patient in social imagination. As the text focuses on Public History, the relationship between disease and empathy emerges in discussions among users on social media platforms such as Redditand YouTube. The final section of the text proposes the transformation of the character through a plot in which the disease reimagines its story in the game. Thus, a character who was previously viewed with repulsion due to their physical deformity, when reimagined as a victim of a degenerative and fatal disease, elicits sensitivity and a reinterpretation of their personality