Man, Play and Games

FICHA:

Autor: Roger Caillois

Editorial: University of Illinois

Género: Sociología

Páginas: 224

Traductor: Meyer Barash

Este magnífico libro escrito por Roger Caillois no hubiese estado en mi lista de lecturas de no haber sido por el interesante curso del profesor de la universidad de Duke Orin Starn sobre deporte y sociedad. Analizar los juegos y deportes desde la sociología era algo inimaginable para mí por mi ignorancia supina del tema.

Tomando como base el texto del profesor holandés Johan Huizinga, otro gran autor en el campo del estudio de los juegos desde una perspectiva académica, Caillois lo criticó y sistematizó. Además propuso una clasificación de los juegos que denominó: agôn, alea, mimicry e ilinx, que se correspondería grosso modo con las palabras castellanas: competición, suerte, simulación y vértigo. Basándose en esa clasificación estudió los diferentes juegos y deportes.

Es una obra que sinceramente me ha cautivado porque me ha abierto nuevos caminos para ver el mundo del deporte, desde una perspectiva completamente novedosa e inesperada.

SIPNOSIS DE LA EDITORIAL:

According to Roger Caillois, play is "an occasion of pure waste: waste of time, energy, ingenuity, skill, and often of money." In spite of this--or because of it--play constitutes an essential element of human social and spiritual development.

In this classic study, Caillois defines play as a free and voluntary activity that occurs in a pure space, isolated and protected from the rest of life. Play is uncertain, since the outcome may not be foreseen, and it is governed by rules that provide a level playing field for all participants. In its most basic form, play consists of finding a response to the opponent's action--or to the play situation--that is free within the limits set by the rules.

Caillois qualifies types of games-- according to whether competition, chance, simulation, or vertigo (being physically out of control) is dominant--and ways of playing, ranging from the unrestricted improvisation characteristic of children's play to the disciplined pursuit of solutions to gratuitously difficult puzzles. Caillois also examines the means by which games become part of daily life and ultimately contribute to various cultures their most characteristic customs and institutions.

Presented here in Meyer Barash's superb English translation, Man, Play and Games is a companion volume to Caillois's Man and the Sacred.