The ambiguity of play / Brian Sutton-Smith.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sutton-Smith, Brian.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Play--Psychological aspects.

Play.

Developmental psychology.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 276 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, 1997.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Sutton-Smith focuses on play theories rooted in seven distinct "rhetorics"--The ancient discourses of fate, power, communal identity, and frivolity and the modern discourses of progress, the imaginary, and the self. In a sweeping analysis that moves from the question of play in child development to the implications of play for the Western work ethic, he explores the values, historical sources, and interests that have dictated the terms and forms of play put forth in each discourse's "objective" theory

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

Preface

Acknowledgments

1 Play and Ambiguity

2 Rhetorics of Animal Progress

3 Rhetorics of Child Play

4 Rhetorics of Fate

5 Rhetorics of Power

6 Rhetorics of Identity

7 Child Power and Identity

8 Rhetorics of the Imaginary

9 Child Phantasmagoria

10 Rhetorics of Self

11 Rhetorics of Frivolity

12 Conclusion

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 233-271) and index.

ISBN:

9780674044180

0674044185

OCLC:

923111776