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1938 book by Johan Huizinga

Homo Ludens is a book originally published in Dutch in 1938 by Dutch historian and cultural theorist Johan Huizinga. It discusses the importance of the play element of culture and society. Huizinga suggests that play is primary to and a necessary (though not sufficient) condition of the generation of culture. The Latin word ludens is the present active participle of the verb ludere, which itself is cognate with the noun ludus. Ludus has no direct equivalent in English, as it simultaneously refers to sport, play, school, and practice.

Word and idea are not born of scientific or logical thinking but of creative language, which means of innumerable languages—for this act of "conception" has taken place over and over again. Huizinga has much to say about the words for play in different languages. Perhaps the most extraordinary remark concerns the Latin language. "It is remarkable that ludus, as the general term for play, has not only not passed into the Romance languages but has left hardly any traces there, so far as I can see We must leave to one side the question whether the disappearance of ludus and ludere is due to phonetic or to semantic causes." Of all the possible uses of the word "play" Huizinga specifically mentions the equation of play with, on the one hand, "serious strife", and on the other, "erotic applications".

Poiesis, in fact, is a play function. It proceeds within the play ground of the mind, in a world of its own which the mind creates for it. There things have a different physiognomy from the one they wear in "ordinary life", and are bound by ties other than those of logic and causality. For Huizinga, the "true appellation of the archaic poet is vates, the possessed, the God smitten, the raving one". Of the many examples he gives, one might choose Unferd who appears in Beowulf.

At the centre of the circle we are trying to describe with our idea of play there stands the figure of the Greek sophist. He may be regarded as an extension of the central figure in archaic cultural life who appeared before us successively as the prophet, medicine man, seer, thaumaturge and poet and whose best designation is vates.

Wherever there is a catch word ending in ism we are hot on the tracks of a play community. Huizinga has already established an indissoluble bond between play and poetry. Now he recognizes that "the same is true, and in even higher degree, of the bond between play and music"
However, when he turns away from "poetry, music and dancing to the plastic arts" he "finds the connections with play becoming less obvious". But here Huizinga is in the past. He cites the examples of the "architect, the sculptor, the painter, draughtsman, ceramist, and decorative artist" who in spite of her/his "creative impulse" is ruled by the discipline, "always subjected to the skill and proficiency of the forming hand". On the other hand, if one turns away from the "making of works of art to the manner in which they are received in the social milieu", then the picture changes completely. It is this social reception, the struggle of the new " ism" against the old " ism", which characterises the play.

In American politics it [the play factor present in the whole apparatus of elections] is even more evident. Long before the two party system had reduced itself to two gigantic teams whose political differences were hardly discernible to an outsider, electioneering in America had developed into a kind of national sport.

"Man only plays when in the full meaning of the word he is a man, and he is only completely a man when he plays." (On the Aesthetic Education of Man — Friedrich Schiller)
"It is ancient wisdom, but it is also a little cheap, to call all human activity 'play'. Those who are willing to content themselves with a metaphysical conclusion of this kind should not read this book." (from the Foreword, unnumbered page)

Homo Ludens is an important part of the history of game studies. It influenced later scholars of play, like Roger Caillois. The concept of the magic circle was inspired by Homo Ludens.

Huizinga makes it clear in the foreword of his book that he means the play element of culture, and not the play element in culture. He writes that he titled the initial lecture on which the book is based, "The Play Element of Culture". This title was repeatedly corrected to "in" Culture, a revision he objected to. The English version modified the subtitle of the book to "A Study of the Play Element in Culture", contradicting Huizinga's stated intention. The translator explains in a footnote in the Foreword, "Logically, of course, Huizinga is correct; but as English prepositions are not governed by logic I have retained the more euphonious ablative in this sub title."

Huizinga, Johan (1938). Homo Ludens: Proeve Ener Bepaling Van Het Spelelement Der Cultuur. Groningen, Wolters Noordhoff cop. 1985. Original Dutch edition. Huizinga, J. (1949). Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element of Culture. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Huizinga, Johan (1955). Homo ludens; a study of the play element of culture. Boston: Beacon Press. Huizinga, Johan (2014). Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element of Culture. Mansfield Centre, CT: Martino Publishing .