Man, Play and Games - Softcover

Caillois, Roger

Softcover

ISBN 10: 025207033X ISBN 13: 9780252070334

Publisher: University of Illinois Press, 2001

Synopsis

Play is "an occasion of pure waste: waste of time, energy, ingenuity, skill, and often of money." It is also an essential element of human social and spiritual development.
In this study, Roger Caillois defines play as a voluntary activity that occurs in a pure space, isolated and protected from the rest of life. Within limits set by rules that provide a level playing field, players move toward an unpredictable outcome by responding to their opponents' actions. Caillois qualifies types of games and ways of playing, from the improvisation characteristic of children's play to the disciplined pursuit of solutions to gratuitously difficult puzzles. He also examines the means by which games become part of daily life, ultimately giving cultures their most characteristic customs and institutions.

About this title

About the Author:

Roger Caillois (1913-1978) was a French social theorist and writer. Claudine Frank is Assistant Professor of French at Barnard College.

Barash was on the faculty of Hofstra College in New York.

Language Notes:

Text: English, French (translation)

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 025207033X
• ISBN 13: 9780252070334
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224