Play in a Godless World (Paperback)

Catherine Bates

ISBN 10: 1871871476 / ISBN 13: 9781871871470

Published by Open Gate Press, London, 1999

About this Item

Paperback. This text challenges the long tradition which sees human play as the fount of creativity and origin of all civilization. The book traces the history of an alternative theory of play in Shakespeare, Nietzsche and Freud, where play is an end in itself - a cultivation of aesthetic forms which do nothing to disguise their artificiality and which are loved only for the fictions which they are. Nietzsche, the arch-philosopher of play, Freud, the theorizer of slips and jokes, and Shakespeare, master of the man-made illusions of the play world, are shown to anticipate the playful philosophy which has become a hallmark of postmodern times. This text challenges the long tradition which sees human play as the fount of creativity and origin of all civilization. The book traces the history of an alternative theory of play in Shakespeare, Nietzsche and Freud, where play is an end in itself - a cultivation of aesthetic forms. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9781871871470

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Play in a Godless World (Paperback)
• Publisher: Open Gate Press, London
• Publication Date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1871871476
• ISBN 13: 9781871871470
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

This is a book about play - child's play, wordplay, stage plays, foul play. It criticizes existing theories of play, showing how the well-known accounts of Friedrich Schiller, Johan Huizinga, Roger Caillois and D. W. Winnicott are fatally compromised by their need to serve a myth of social and psychological progress. Play in a Godless World draws on philosophy, sociology, psychoanalysis and deconstruction for an alternative account of play - one more attuned to the ironic spirit of modern times. Considering every aspect of play, from jokes and game theory to the lottery and Pascal's wager, it concludes that the stage plays of mimetic drama demonstrate human play at its most sophisticated and tragedy at its most sophisticated of all.

About the Author

Catherine Bates currently teaches at the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies at the University of Warwick.