In recent years, play and gaming have been increasingly harnessed for serious purposes: from Duolingo's gamification of language-learning, to the life-changing games of Netflix's 'Squid Game'. And yet, literary play is still often associated with nonsense rhymes and pointless word games. Why is that? And before we can answer that question...what actually is 'literary play', what can it do, and is it really a waste of time?
In this module you'll explore some important cases of literary play across a range of linguistic and cultural contexts, from the 1200s to today. The module will encourage you to think about the serious stakes literary play has had, and can have. And by looking at a variety of media (texts, material culture, and video games), it will help you to form answers to the questions above, and of course to ask questions of your own.
In this module you'll explore some important cases of literary play across a range of linguistic and cultural contexts, from the 1200s to today. The module will encourage you to think about the serious stakes literary play has had, and can have. And by looking at a variety of media (texts, material culture, and video games), it will help you to form answers to the questions above, and of course to ask questions of your own.
