[Xmca-l] Re: Do adults play?

[Larry Purss]

Greg,
I am left wondering if we need to define what we mean by *play* What comes
to mind is the relation to *metaphor* *analogy* and *models* which can be
seen to be the *background* to the *systematic models* that become
preoccupied with foundations and certainty.
If models *mediate* experience then the seriousness that comes with
foundational yearnings may be leading to literalness and formalism and
disciplines as foundational constructions.
Then *play* for adults may be the exploration of the texture of these
foundational *models* AS *MODELS*.
I'm circling around the relation of the literal as serious and the
metaphorical as play.
Just thinking out loud. Bahktin's perspective suggests that our social
relations always find ways to break up the literalness and return to the
realm of adult *play* as entering the imaginal realms.
Larry


On Sun, Oct 20, 2013 at 8:22 PM, Greg Thompson <greg.a.thompson@gmail.com>wrote:

> If so, what does it look like?
>
> I looked back at the suggestions sent to Caitlin Wubbena who had asked
> about the role of play in places like academia. It seemed like very few of
> the responses spoke to play in adulthood and fewer spoke to play in
> academia.
>
> So I'm wondering is the problem here that CHAT theorists are only
> interested in "play" as a thing that gets the child into a more expansive
> world (cf. Beth's concurrent thread on play among 1 year-olds)? Or is there
> a literature on "play" across the lifespan? And to my opening question:
> what would "play" look like in adolescence or adulthood?
>
> So, does anyone have any good leads on the role of play in adulthood?
>
> Seems like Bakhtin's work on Rabelais might be a start? But I don't know
> enough about his work to know if Bakhtin was using the concept of "play."
> (and other great satirists come to mind as well - Laurence Sterne's
> Tristram Shandy seems a nice early example of "play" in writing that goes
> beyond mere "comedy" and into a really complex form of "play", but there
> must be earlier examples of this type of play).
>
> Any ideas?
> -greg
>
>
> --
> Gregory A. Thompson, Ph.D.
> Visiting Assistant Professor
> Department of Anthropology
> 883 Spencer W. Kimball Tower
> Brigham Young University
> Provo, UT 84602
> http://byu.academia.edu/GregoryThompson
>