Games and Game Playing in European Art and Literature, 16th-17th Centuries (1) (Cultures of Play)

By: Robin O’Bryan

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Synopsis: This collection of essays examines the vogue for games and game playing as expressed in art and literature in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Europe. Focusing on games as a leitmotif of creative expression, these scholarly inquiries are framed as a response to two main questions: how were games used to convey special meanings in art and literature, and how did games speak to greater issues in European society? In chapters dealing with chess, playing cards, board games, dice, gambling, and outdoor and sportive games, essayists show how games were used by artists, writers, game makers and collectors, in the service of love and war, didactic and moralistic instruction, commercial enterprise, politics and diplomacy, and assertions of civic and personal identity. Offering innovative iconographical and literary interpretations, their analyses reveal how games“played, written about, illustrated and collected“functioned as metaphors for a host of broader cultural issues related to gender relations and feminine power, class distinctions and status, ethical and sexual comportment, philosophical and religious ideas, and conditions of the mind.

Book Quality:: Publisher Quality
Book Size:: 304 Pages
ISBN-13:: 9781040786659
Related ISBNs:: 9781040780633, 9789463728119, 9781041179986, 9781003696315
Publisher:: Taylor & Francis
Date of Addition:: 10/01/25
Copyrighted By:: R. O’Bryan / Taylor & Francis Group
Adult content:: No
Language:: English
Has Image Descriptions:: No
Categories:: History, Nonfiction, Art and Architecture, Literature and Fiction, Language Arts
Submitted By:: Bookshare Staff
Usage Restrictions:: This is a copyrighted book.
Edited by:: Robin O'Bryan