Ludens

Too often the joke has been missed by grave intellectuals, like Johan Huizinga, who concluded sadly in his book "Homo Ludens" 1938, that "the play element in culture is on the wane."

There and Back Again Tom Shippey 2012

In his classic work on the subject, Homo Ludens, the Dutch historian Johan Huizinga described play as "a free activity standing quite consciously outside ordinary life as being 'not serious' but at the same absorbing the player intensely and utterly."

Alfie Kohn: Five Not-So-Obvious Propositions About Play Alfie Kohn 2011

Homo Ludens dances, sings, produces meaningful gestures, strikes poses, dresses up, revels and performs elaborate rituals.

A critic's life can be a happy one, with the right frame of mind. Robert Birnbaum talks to Pulitzer-prize winner Gail Caldwell about a life well read, 19th-century novels, and the changing of hearts. 2010

When Dutch scholar Johan Huizinga wrote Homo Ludens: The Play Element in Culture (1938) he made the strong and enduring argument that in the "primeval soil of play" we find the origin of "the great instinctive forces of civilized life," of myth and ritual, law and order, poetry and science.

Dave Hollander: Somebody Come and Play 2010

While lawyer Duranske is investigating an emerging body of thought that binds law and play, he says this issue isn't new – it dates back to 1938's Homo Ludens: A Study of The Play Element in Culture by Dutch historian Johan Huizinga.

Avatar Identity Theft Prompts Review of Gaia and Virtual World Rules 2009

And doesn't what we discover about ourselves during this seemingly frivolously playful activity acquire huge significance when viewed from the point of view of Homo Ludens?

Archive 2009-01-01 Alpha Auer 2009

And doesn't what we discover about ourselves during this seemingly frivolously playful activity acquire huge significance when viewed from the point of view of Homo Ludens?

The Work of Art in the Age of Computational (Re)Production *** Alpha Auer 2009

Johan Huizinga believes that we were becoming Homo Ludens - gaming human.

Leslie Goldman: Grand Theft Auto: D-Cup Edition 2008

Huizinga set the tone for much of the inquiry into games and society in the latter half of the twentieth century with his book Homo Ludens.

December 2008 2008

Huizinga set the tone for much of the inquiry into games and society in the latter half of the twentieth century with his book Homo Ludens.

Game as Cultural Form, Play as Disposition 2008