Play
Introduction
If work - the struggle to provide the means for subsistance - has tended to to be the focus of most people's lives over the centuries, recreation, relaxation and play have also been an essential part of human existance. Just as stories, songs, traditions and superstitions have grown up around work, from the eariest times 'play' has featured in the folk traditions and beliefs of European peoples. These have ranged from traditional children's games to more adult means of (temporarily) subverting the social order, to contemporary sporting rituals and superstitions. In this seminar we will consider the role of play in the folklore of Europe and how it has been represented.
Seminar Questions
- How are leisure activities represented in the folklore of Europe?
- Why is the study of folk traditions surrounding leisure, recreation and play important?
Required Reading
You should each read all three items:
Vaczi, Mariann, and Alan Bairner, 'Introduction,' in , ed. Mariann Vaczi and Alan Bairner (London, 2023), 1-19.
Brand, John, Observations on Popular Antiquities: Chiefly Illustrating the Origin of our Vulgar Customs, Ceremonies and Superstitions, ed. Henry Ellis, 2 vols (London, 1813), . [Choose and analyse one game or sport].
Further Reading
(on superstition in sport)
Billington, Sandra, A Social History of the Fool (Brighton, 1984)
Evans, George Ewart, Where Beards Wag All: The Relevance of the Oral Tradition (London, 1970)
Henricks, Thomas S., Disputed Pleasures: Sport and Society in Preindustrial England (Westport, CT, 1991)
Hole, Christina, English Sports and Pastimes (London, 1949)
Malcolmson, Robert W., Popular Recreations in English Society, 1700-1850 (Cambridge, 1973)
Opie, Iona, and Peter Opie, Children's Games in Street and Playground, 2 vols (1969; Edinburgh, 2008)
Opie, Iona, and Peter Opie, The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren (New York, 2001)
Palmer, Roy, and Jon Raven, eds, The Rigs of the Fair: Popular Sports and Pastimes in the Nineteenth Century through Songs, Ballads, and Contemporary Accounts (Cambridge, 1976)
Simpson, Jacqueline, Green Men & White Swans: The Folklore of British Pub Names (London, 2010)
Sutton-Smith, Brian, et. al. Children's Folklore: A Sourcebook (London, 1995)
Westwood, Jennifer, and Jacqueline Simpson, The Lore of the Land: A Guide to England's Legends, from Spring-Heeled Jack to the Witches of Warboys (Harmondsworth, 2005)
Electronic Resources
See here.