Playing with Words: an exploration of ludic terms and the linguistic permeation of play in a cultural context

Abstract

The word ‘play’ permeates our language and can refer to a range of different and seemingly disparate activities. The play of children may be distinct from the play‐world of the theatre but by examining the linguistic connection within a cultural framework, we can begin to see how a society's understanding of play may affect directly the work of drama educationists in schools today. Play is often understood in relation to its apparent opposite‐‐work, reality or seriousness. This article attempts to explode this socially constructed polarisation and explores play in its relation to ritual, liminality, anarchy and revolution. If play gives us the ability to transform ourselves into ‘other’ then our position can never remain fixed, meanings are subject to change and thus the self is resistant to control by those in power. This play function is recognised as a working methodology of practitioners such as Boal but should also be of concern to those operating as drama educationists in establishments where play is more often treated as a reward for hard work than understood as a primary human function. This research charts how attitudes to play have developed over time and how language gives us the key to our own understanding of the play state.