Johan Huizinga – författare

With cross-cultural examples from the humanities, business, and politics, Huizinga examines play in all its diverse guises—as it relates to language, law, war, knowledge, poetry, myth, philosophy, art, and much more. As he writes, “Civilization is, in its earliest phases, played. It does not come from play like a baby detaching itself from the womb: it arises in and as play, and never leaves it.”

Starting with Plato, Huizinga traces the contribution of “man the player” through the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and early modern world. With an eye for our own times he writes: “In American politics [play] is even more evident. Long before the two-party system had reduced itself to two gigantic teams whose political differences were hardly discernible to an outsider, electioneering in America had developed into a kind of national sport.” With its remarkable historical sweep, Homo Ludens defines play for generations to come.

“A fascinating account of ‘man the player’ and the contribution of play to civilization.”—Harper’s

“A writer with a sharp and powerful intelligence, helped by a gift of expression and exposition which is very rare, Huizinga assembles and interprets one of the most fundamental elements of human culture: the instinct for play. Reading this volume, one suddenly discovers how profoundly the achievements in law, science, poverty, war, philosophy, and in the arts, are nourished by the instinct of play.”—Roger Caillois, editor of Diogenes

Kulturhistorikern Johan Huizinga menade att lusten att leka är ett centralt element i människans natur – ett kännetecken för vårt väsen och en förutsättning för vår utveckling. Han karaktäriserar människoarten i förhållande till de andra djuren som homo ludens, på svenska den lekande människan . Utan lust och förmåga att leka skulle stora delar av vår kultur inte ha utvecklats, som poesi, juridik, vetenskap, bildkonst, filosofi – och mycket annat.

Huizinga spårar den lekande människans bidrag från Platon, genom medeltiden, renässansen och in i vår moderna civilisation. Med hjälp av tvärkulturella exempel från bland annat humaniora och politik definierar han lek mot en rik teoretisk bakgrund. Homo ludens utkom första gången 1938 (på svenska 1945 som Den lekande människan) och blev snabbt ett referensverk.

Denna utgåva har ett nyskrivet förord av Douglas Hedley, professor i religionsfilosofi vid University of Cambridge.

With cross-cultural examples from the humanities, business, and politics, Huizinga examines play in all its diverse guises—as it relates to language, law, war, knowledge, poetry, myth, philosophy, art, and much more. As he writes, “Civilization is, in its earliest phases, played. It does not come from play like a baby detaching itself from the womb: it arises in and as play, and never leaves it.”

Starting with Plato, Huizinga traces the contribution of “man the player” through the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and early modern world. With an eye for our own times he writes: “In American politics [play] is even more evident. Long before the two-party system had reduced itself to two gigantic teams whose political differences were hardly discernible to an outsider, electioneering in America had developed into a kind of national sport.” With its remarkable historical sweep, Homo Ludens defines play for generations to come.

“A fascinating account of ‘man the player’ and the contribution of play to civilization.”—Harper’s

“A writer with a sharp and powerful intelligence, helped by a gift of expression and exposition which is very rare, Huizinga assembles and interprets one of the most fundamental elements of human culture: the instinct for play. Reading this volume, one suddenly discovers how profoundly the achievements in law, science, poverty, war, philosophy, and in the arts, are nourished by the instinct of play.”—Roger Caillois, editor of Diogenes

This collection by the distinguished Dutch historian Johan Huizinga (1872-1945) reflects the theme of its key essay, The Task of Cultural History," throughout its pages. Huizinga''s conception of cultural history informs both his essays on historiographic questions and those on such figures as John of Salisbury, Abelard, Joan of Arc, Erasmus, and Grotius.Originally published in 1984.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.