Huizinga th homo ludens m 1992. Johan Huizinga

Huizinga th homo ludens m 1992. Johan Huizinga

Introduction

Johan Heizinga (1872-1945) is famous for his work "Homo ludens" ("Man playing"), in which he defends the thesis about the playful nature of culture. If his concept does not negate the importance of labor as a culture-forming factor in history, then, in any case, it challenges it. Play is older than culture, play precedes culture, play creates culture - this is the leitmotif of Huizinga's concept.

Huizinga justifies his interest in a person playing in the following way: people turned out to be not as intelligent as the light 18th century naively suggested in its veneration of Reason. And the name of the man, Homo faber, is incomplete. A playing person expresses the same essential function of life as a creative person, and must take his place next to Homo faber.

The game in the Huizinga concept is a cultural-historical universal. As a social impulse older than culture itself, play has since ancient times filled life and, like yeast, forced the forms of archaic culture to grow. The spirit that forms the language, each time playfully jumped from the level of the material to the level of thought. The cult grew into a sacred game. Poetry was born in play and began to live thanks to playful forms. Music and dance were all games. Wisdom and knowledge found their expression in consecrated competitions. The law stood out from the customs of the social game. Settlement of disputes with the help of weapons and the conventions of aristocratic life were based on game forms. Huizinga is convinced that culture in its oldest forms is "played". "It comes from play, like a living fetus that is separated from the mother's body," writes the author. "It develops in play and as play." "Culture is conceived not as a game or from a game, but in a game."

A review of the history of culture, its various eras, leads the scientist to the conclusion that the play element in culture is decreasing. The displacement of the game, which began in the 18th century, actually ends by the 19th century. The spirit of society, according to Huizinga, is beginning to take possession of a sober, prosaic concept of utility. It is a shameful misconception that economic forces and economic interests determine the course of history. The spirit of rationalism and utilitarianism killed the sacrament and declared man free from guilt and sin. Labor and production become an ideal, and soon an idol. Culture is much less played than in previous periods.

The indisputable dignity and relevance of the Dutch scientist's research is due to the fact that the analysis of the history of culture under the sign of play is linked by the author with the life processes and cataclysms of modern consciousness, with the prospects of the cultural movement. Late bourgeois culture is losing its tradition of play; in the same place where it looks like she is playing, Huizinga notes, this game is fake. The author warns of corruption, destruction of a culture moving away from its origins. The game, filled with aesthetic moments, "losing" and creating spiritual values ​​- previously a culture-creating factor - has now been reborn into a surrogate for gaming activity - into sports. It turned into a scientifically and technically organized passion. From the unity of the spiritual and the physical, he retained the base physical side. The cultural game is a public and public game. The more participants and fewer viewers there are, the more fruitful it is for the individual.

The spiritual tension of the cultural game, according to Huizinga, even art has lost. In art, two sides of artistic activity have been distinguished: free-creative and socially significant. A lot of people consume art, but do not have it as a necessary part of their life, much less create it themselves.

The game is based on the perception of the presented rules, thereby orienting the child to comply with certain rules adulthood... By virtue of its characteristics, play is the best way to achieve the development of a child's creativity without the use of coercive methods.

The purpose of the course work is to study the creativity of Huizing and his work "Man playing" related to child psychology.

To solve this goal, in the process of its implementation, the following tasks were implemented:

Study play as a cultural phenomenon,

Formation of the personality of a preschooler through play.

The subject of analysis is the study of a person playing.

When analyzing the material, the method of scientific description was used, including the techniques of observation, interpretation and comparison, as well as the lexicographic method.

The object of the study is preschool age.

Chapter 1. Play as a cultural phenomenon

1.1. Play and sophistication

The desire to show oneself first manifests itself in as many forms as the opportunities given by a given society. The ways in which people compete with each other are as different as the things they fight for and the actions in which they take part. All the lot decides, either strength and dexterity, or a bloody battle. Compete in courage or endurance, skill or knowledge, bravery and cunning. The task is given to measure strength or skill, to do something especially difficult, some difficult thing, to forge a sword, to find an unusual rhyme. Participants are asked questions that need to be answered. Competition can take such forms as divine judgment, betting, litigation, making a vow, or making riddles. In all these forms, it, in essence, remains a game, and in this quality of play lies the starting point for understanding the function of competition in culture.

At the beginning of any competition is a game, that is, an agreement that within the boundaries of place and time, according to certain rules, in a certain form, do something that brings the resolution of a certain tension and is at the same time outside the ordinary course of life. What should be done and what will be the gain is a question that looms as secondary in the game problem.

The customs of competition and the importance attached to them are noted in all cultures with an extraordinary similarity. This almost perfect formal similarity in itself proves how strongly all playful, agonal activity is connected with the deep foundation of a person's mental life and the life of society.

Introduction .. 3

Chapter 1. Play as a cultural phenomenon ... 6

1.1. Play and sophistication. 6

1.2. The importance of play in the development of a child's personality ... 17

Chapter 2. Formation of a preschooler's personality through play .. 26

2.1. Organization of independent activities of children and planning of educational work to guide the game .. 26

2.2. Creative play in the pedagogical process of the kindergarten. thirty

Conclusion. 39

References .. 42

References

  1. Anikeeva N.P. Education by play. Moscow: Education, 1987.
  2. Bure R.S. Education in the learning process in the classroom in kindergarten. M .: Pedagogy, 1981.
  3. Volkov B.S., Volkova N.V. Methods for studying the psyche of a child. M., 1994.
  4. Vygotsky L.S. Play and its role in the mental development of the child. // Questions of psychology. 1996. No. 6.
  5. Halperin P.Ya., Elkonin D.B., Zaporozhets A.V. To the analysis of the theory of J. Piaget about the development of children's thinking. Afterword to the book by D. Fleywell "Genetic psychology of J. Piaget". M., 1967.
  6. Zenkovsky V.V. Childhood psychology. M., 1995
  7. Kazakova T.G. Develop creativity in preschoolers. M., 1984.
  8. Lisina M.I. Problems of ontogenesis of communication. M., 1986.
  9. A.A. Lyublinskaya Child psychology: a textbook for students of pedagogical institutes. Moscow: Education, 1971.
  10. Makarova E.G. In the beginning was childhood: Teacher's notes. M .: Pedagogy, 1990.
  11. Mikhailenko N.Ya. Pedagogical principles of organizing a plot game. // Preschool education. 1989. No. 4.
  12. Mikhailova A. Drawing preschoolers: process or result? // Preschool education. 1994. - No. 4.
  13. Obukhova L.F. Child psychology: theories, facts, problems. M .: Trivola, 1995.
  14. Obukhova L.F. Piaget's concept: pros and cons. M., 1981.
  15. Features of the psychological development of children 6-7 years of age. / Ed. D.B. Elkonina, A.L. Wenger. M., 1988.
  16. Palagina N.N. Imagination in the early stages of ontogenesis. M., 1992.
  17. Articles on the history of culture / Composition. D. V. Silvestrov. Moscow: Progress of Traditions, 1997
  18. Ekki L. Theater and play activities. // Preschool education. 1991, - No. 7.
  19. Elkonin A.B. Child psychology. M .: Education, 1960.
  20. Elkonin D.B. "Symbolism and its functions in the play of children // Preschool education" 1966. No. 3
  21. Elkonin D.B. Psychology of the game. M .: Pedagogy, 1978.
  22. Emotional development of a preschooler / Ed. A.D. Kosheleva. M .: Education, 1985.
  23. Jung K. Conflicts of the child's soul. M .: Canon, 1995.
  • Title: Man playing (Homo Ludens: the Study of the Play Element in Culture)
  • Year: 1938

Summary: One of the fundamental texts on games, an academic view of play activity in culture. A must-read for game designers, recommended for everyone else as a serious material, but keep in mind that this is a complex book, not intended for a wide audience.

It is not easy to write a job review, which is the most cited one in game design books. I don’t remember that in recent times read something deep without references to Huizingu. All the books in my previous reviews have quoted him, and for good reason - this is the best I've read on the topic of games. And this is not empty boasting. I read a lot of things, but Homo Ludens just fascinated me. I recommend it to anyone who wants to better understand games as a cultural component. I regret putting it off for so long.

The 1938 book may be considered outdated, but it has the opposite effect: Homo Ludens is surprisingly up-to-date. This is not your typical design tutorial - the book is small, 214 pages, with no tutorials or tips for making games, or even thoughts on what makes a game good. This is a book about anthropology, not design. Despite the scientific roots, it did not seem too complicated to me (the author's arguments are sufficiently supported by his own words, so familiarity with the quoted literature is not required), but keep in mind that in principle I like heavier texts, so someone it will be harder to read. Huizinga is a Dutch anthropologist, and I read the book in English translation, and in any translation there is always a slight hint of unnaturalness. The author also examines, defines and uses some borrowed terms, such as agon (in Greek - "game element") and other concepts related to competition and rivalry. All these factors make the text scientific, viscous, and difficult to understand. If you don’t care (I’m for sure), feel free to read.

The term Homo Ludens is an alternative proposed by the author Homo sapiens... He believes that the definition of "playing" is more appropriate for our species than "intelligent." Substantiating his assumption, he considers from the point of view of philosophy, history, anthropology and linguistics what it means to “play” and what role play plays in human culture. He believes that people tend to play, that the process of playing has its own value, and not just serves as a training for survival skills (as other scientists claim). Huizinga writes that culture grew out of games and without games there would be no culture.

As arguments, he cites the anthropological origins of many elements of modern civilization that we associate with culture: war, law, religion, art, philosophy, and so on. In each of these chapters (simply called Games and War, Games and Law), the author explores the rudiments of the element, considering “primitive” people (not a good term, but don't be distracted by it) living outside modern civilization (detailed definition he does not give her) both in the past and in our time. Huizinga argues that all the elements were based on games, and they certainly still exist, although they do not play such an important and explicit role. Using the example of cultures that have not developed to the level of modern civilization (meaning primarily Western), he demonstrates the more obvious influence of games on things like religion and law. It delves into rich cultural deposits from all over the world, from the Inuit to ancient China, from Greek competitions to Norse mythology and the beliefs of African tribes.

It is difficult to generalize his research, since there are a lot of ideas in the book. For example, the author says that philosophy stems from competitions with riddles, where knowledge was not only something sacred, it was a tool for winning the fight. He says that the anthropological roots of law lie not in the search for truth, but in the method of settling differences, complemented by the entertainment of the public. Justice in ancient cultures often took the form of verbal battles with insults, poetry, dances, these were just contests (often in the form of a spectacle) with a minimal focus on moral assessment (this will appear later). I think that Huizinga also successfully substantiated the playful nature of religion and customs, although it is more difficult to draw a sensible generalization here.

Huizinga introduces the term "magic circle" - a special place where the rules of the real world give way to the rules of the game. As designers of modern games, we think of the magic circle as a poker table, chessboard, tennis court, or virtual world in a video game, but Huizinga takes a broader view of this concept. For him, the magic circle is a ritual space: a playground, a courtroom, a temple, or a battlefield. To give an understanding of the full breadth of his arguments, the author lists what he relates to the field of games: contests, competitions, gambling and betting, performances, war games, word games and rhetoric, riddles, fortune-telling, art, holiday feasts, gift-giving, harvest festivals, customs and religions, chivalry. I really like the part about potlatch - a ritual of demonstrative distribution (and destruction) of wealth to increase authority.

I learned a lot from the book and I hope that it will teach me a lot more as a designer. I often began to think about the implementation of performances and rituals in games and the fact that many things in our life can be considered games: poetic duels, celebrity worship, Seder Passover and talking heads arguing in the news.

As I said, this is not a practical book or easy reading, but if you make a living by developing games, the time allotted for reading will pay off when you start looking to see if your games fit into Huizing's play space. All professional designers should read the book, especially those working on experimental and arthouse projects. Students who have just started studying games may find the book's relevance questionable; something else is better for them (for example, Art of Game Design). Regardless of your attitude to game design, if you are interested in the above topic, I sincerely recommend Homo Ludens to read it.

PROEVE EENER BEPALING

VAN NO SPEL-ELEMENT DER CULTUUR

HUIZING

MAN PLAYING

EXPERIENCE IN DETERMINING THE GAME ELEMENT OF CULTURE

drafting, preface and translation V. Silvestrov's commentary and index of A.-E. Kharitonovin

FROM DATE AND IN AN LIMBAKH SAINT PETERSBURG

UDC 94 (100) + 930.85 BBK 71.0 + 63 (0)

Huizinga Johan. Homo ludens. Man playing / Comp., Foreword. X 35 and per. with netherl. D. V. Silvestrov; Comment., Index D.E. Hari-

tonovich. SPb .: Publishing house of Ivan Limbakh, 2011 .-- 416 p.

ISBN 978-5-89059-168-5

A Fundamental Study of a Prominent Dutch Historian and culturologist J. HuizingaHomo ludens [playing man],

analyzing the playful nature of culture, proclaims the universality of the phenomenon of play and its enduring significance in human civilization. Long recognized as a classic, this work is distinguished by scientific value, breadth of coverage, variety of factual material, extensive erudition, brightness and convincing presentation, transparency and completeness of style.

The book comes out in the fourth, revised and revised edition with a detailed scientific apparatus.

On the title page: Johan Huizinga. Caricature by David Levin, 1996

© 1938 by Johan Huizinga

© 2011 The Estate of Johan Huizinga

© D. V. Silvestrov, compilation, translation, 1995, 1997, 2007,2011

© D. V. Silvestrov, foreword, 2011

© D. V. Silvestrov, supplement, 2011

© D. E. Kharitonovich, commentary, 1995, 1997, 2007, 2011

© N.A. Teplov, design, 2011

© Ivan Limbakh Publishing House, 2011

P R E D I S L O V I E

i ^ with the publication of the fourth book by Johan Huizinga (1872-1945), the publishing house of Ivan Limbach makes almost all the most famous works of the remarkable Dutch historian and culturologist available to the Russian reader.

After the brilliant success that appeared in 1919, Autumn Middle Ages " Johan Huizinga is writing another book that has won worldwide recognition. It - Homo ludens ** [Man playing].

The book is published in 1938. Some readers were perplexed by the appearance of the opus, which seemed to be written in a completely different manner. And only with time it became more and more clear how much these - at first glance, two so different - books are essentially close to each other.

Autumn of the Middle Ages saw the light immediately after the First World War. Holland then managed to remain neutral. Thus, her horror was perceived as a contrast to the mutilated, bleeding Europe that surrounded the country. The book arose in dramatic opposition to a devilishly inhuman period in European history.

V Autumn of the Middle Ages we see a bizarre fusion of the most diverse texts - with the author's clear interest in

* I. Huizinga. Autumn of the Middle Ages. M., Science, 1988 (Series Monuments of historical thought); I. Huizinga. Autumn of the Middle Ages. M., Progress Culture, 1995; I. Huizinga. Autumn of the Middle Ages. M., Iris-press, 2002; 2004; I. Huizinga. Autumn of the Middle Ages. SPb., Publishing house of Ivan Limbakh, 2011.

** I. Huizinga. Homo ludens. Articles on the history of culture. M, Progress Culture, 1995; J. Huizinga. Homo ludens .. Articles on the history of culture. M., Iris-press, 2003; J. Huizinga. Homo ludens. A man playing. SPb., Aabuka classic 2007.

DMITRY SILVESTROV

anthropology and sociology of culture, which steadily led Huizinga to the next step, which was his other famous book - Homo ludens [playing man].

Comparing these two books, we notice that Autumn Sredneve Kovya contains abundant material on the essence of play forms *, which covers and explains the concept of play in To the man playing the book “about the eternal primitiveness (primitiveness) of human culture, which never leaves its origins, but when it leaves, it fatally loses itself” **.

The culture that saves us from the onset of barbarism requires understanding. It is necessary to find a certain universal rule, a certain universal sphere of activity, say even a certain universal reconciling space that gives people equal chances, justifying their sometimes unbearable existence. This is not about the moral justification of history and certainly not about theodicy - but about the ineradicable need to apply the measure of the human mind to the cosmic infinity of the spiritual component human life.

The age-old paradox of freedom, realistically achievable only on an imaginary horizon, is given an impressive resolution of the game's phenomena.

In 1938, the world is on the eve of the Second, even more monstrous world war. Cultural traditions did not prevent the onset

* “But at the same time it was cultivated empty appearance, which greatly influenced the consciousness of society. It seems that this paradox can be resolved if we abandon evaluative representations of the external as something bad, understand that there are no meaningless cultural phenomena, and recognize that the content of all these empty forms were self-forms. That is, what filled these forms, what created them, what gave them just such a look, disappeared, leaving significance, and they became valuable in themselves, self-valuable ”(D.E. Kharitonovich. The Autumn of the Middle Ages: Johann Huizinga and the Problem of Decline. In the book: J. Huizinga.

Autumn of the Middle Ages. Progress-Culture, 1995, p. 373).

** A.V. Mikhailov. J. Huizinga in the historiography of culture, in: Autumn of the Middle Ages. Science, M., 1988, p. 444.

APPENDIX

indulgence of barbarism. The intervening period entre deux guerres not only did not bring the desired pacification, but clearly nurtured a new, even more monstrous catastrophe. The melancholic metaphor of the beautiful, magnificently withering autumn every year went further and further into the motley multicolor of that “century of Burgundy” which, once arose under the pen of a Dutch history professor, was now destined to never end. But the reality looked different.

Like literary works Autumn of the Middle Ages and Homo ludenSy, at first glance, belong to different genres. Mosaic Autumn of the Middle Ages makes it look like a puzzle, a mysterious picture, inspired by many colored fragments. But now the method of "child's play" is growing into a deeply conscious holistic composition. Homo ludens, with all its external difference from Autumn of the Middle Ages, demonstrates a clear stylistic continuity. Both works are characterized by the classical clarity of style, musical rhythm in the construction of phrases, speech periods, all elements of the text. The richness and planning of the vocabulary entirely obey the author's absolute pitch. Huizinga is one of those masters for whom any errors in taste are absolutely inconceivable. His language is restrained and clear, but at the same time emotionally bright and expressive. Outwardly, a strictly scientific presentation now and then evokes various reminiscences, often acquiring subtle shades of irony.

Huizinga, who in his Autumn made the image a new, important element of historical research, now proposed a new metaphor - this time already forall seasons. Individual and social life, the entire historical and cultural development of mankind is described in terms of a game, like a game.

In two of his most significant books, Huizinga responds to what he says is the most powerful impression in his life. At the age of six, in Groningen, he becomes a witness of a costume parade dedicated to one of the

D M I T R I J S I L V E S T R O V

being of the Dutch history of the XVII century. From childhood, he is imbued with the feeling that the individual experience of the past is not intertwined with individual characters. In 1894, he himself, in a 17th century costume, participates in a similar student mask of the Rada. At a dinner after the celebration, Huizinga remarked that “the masquerade is an unmistakable sign of decay, perhaps its last manifestation. And we are proud to be the last bearers of this beautiful tradition that is now dying. " Note, however, that solemn rituals, especially in old European monarchies, testify that this tradition not only does not die, but, combining earnest seriousness with humorous irony, manifests itself in beautiful and deeply meaningful spectacles (the clearest example is Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace, ending to the melody of Mozart's aria "Non più andrai, farfallone amoroso." * Recalling the ceremony of awarding him an honorary doctorate from the University of Oxford, Huizinga writes that he experienced an hour of "true Middle Ages" and that it is surprising to what extent the English can to honor these traditions highly, not taking them too seriously, but also not turning them into a laughingstock.

A person is a person insofar as he has the ability to act and be the subject of the game at will. And indeed - “created in the image and likeness of God”, to the key question about his name, he, unconsciously joining in the game imposed on him from an early age, artlessly calls the name that he bears, not daring to answer the question asked seriously, namely: “I am.” ... Under the guise of his own name, each of us plays out his life, in the universal essence of the game, standing on a par with the "masquerade" dances of the primitive tribes. “After being expelled from paradise, a person lives playing” (Lev Losev).

* Figaro's aria from the opera addressed to Cherubino Le nczze di Figaro [Wedding Figaro] -, performed in Russian: "The boy is playful, curly, in love."

FOREWORD

The process of play, which objectively includes all human activity, responds with a subjective feeling of being involved in a game in each of us. The appearance and disappearance of symbols, cultural and religious boundaries accompanying the course of history, the breadth and variability of the approach to things - this is not a change in the rules of the game in the course of the game. This is the game itself. According to Huizinge, this is history, the history of mental and psychic evolution. This is the very existence of man, defined by him precisely as

a man playing.

Homo ludens, a fundamental research that has long since become a classic, reveals the essence of the phenomenon of play and its significance in human civilization. But the most noticeable thing here is the humanistic background of this concept, which can be traced to different stages cultural history of many countries and peoples. The inclination and ability of a person to clothe all aspects of his life in forms of play behavior is a confirmation of the objective value of his inherent creative aspirations.

The feeling and situation of the game, giving, as direct experience convinces us, the maximum possible freedom to its participants, are realized within the framework of the historical context, which leads to the emergence of certain rigidly outlined rules - the rules of the game. No context, no rules. The opposite is also true: the one who does not accept the rules falls out of the context of history. The meaning and significance of the game are determined by the relationship of the immediate, phenomenal text of the game - to one way or another mediated universal, that is, including the whole world, the context of human existence. This is very clear in the case of a work of art - an example of such a game, the context of which is the entire universe. A work of art is present in time, but exists in eternity and as such contains the spiritual experience of both the past and the future. A classic work of art is inexhaustible, it cannot be explained and cannot be understood, being a plastic image of an immense and inexplicable universe. The same piece of art -

Homo Ludens. Articles on the history of culture

HOMO LUDENS. ARTIKELEN OVER DE CULTUURGESCHIEDENIS


Scientific commentary by D.E. Kharitonovich

The publication is carried out with the financial support of the "Nederiands Literatir Productie- en Vertalingenfonds"

ISBN 5-89493-010-3

WARNING. NARRATION TEXT IN GAME CONTEXT

Two books made Johan Heizinga famous. These are "Autumn of the Middle Ages" (I volume of this edition) and "Homo ludens" [The playing man]. Throughout the whole "Autumn of the Middle Ages" a well-known expression from the First Epistle to the Corinthians runs as a refrain: "Videmus nunc per speculum in aenigmate, tunc autem facie ad faciem" Cor. 13, 12]. From the point of view of the narrative, this comparison evokes the memory of Stendhal, who likened the novel to a mirror lying on the high road. It impassively and objectively reflects everything that floats by. Isn't that the story? To be dispassionate and objective - is this not what the historian is striving for? However, is it possible to rely on a mirror - speculum - with all the speculations that follow from this?

The mirror is par excellence a symbol of uncertainty. The fragility of the arising reflections, the inscrutability and mystery behind the looking glass, it seems, conceal an inevitable self-deception. But what, then, is the objectivity of the historian - objectivity, the striving for which is invariably accompanied by ambiguity, as Joseph Brodsky would later say? And this is what Huizinga himself said: "It is my deeply rooted conviction that the entire mental work of a historian is constantly passing through a series of antinomies" (one of the most graphic examples is the article The Problem of the Renaissance published in this volume).

The very concept of a mirror is antinomic. Doesn't the phrase from the First Epistle to the Corinthians speak about this? A mirror dim here will clear up there. The river of historical Time will be transformed into the ocean of Eternity, whose memory invariably keeps in itself the Spirit of God, once reflected there, an image from Tyutchev's future: "When the last hour of nature strikes ..." - Brodsky returned to the past: "I always thought that if the Spirit of God was worn over the waters ... "Lev Losev, pointing out that for Brodsky the face of God is forever preserved in the memory of the ocean mirror, speaks of

"The Autumn of the Middle Ages" arose as a man's response to a monstrously inhuman period in European history. But not only that. The culture that saves us from the onset of barbarism requires understanding. The justification of history, without which the existence of religious consciousness is inconceivable (namely, consciousness, and not a worldview that should not be irrational in a thinking person!), We derive from the spiritualized - and spiritualizing - fruits of creative genius. However, it is necessary to find a certain universal rule, a certain universal sphere of activity, say even a certain universal space that reconciles people, gives them at least some chances, justifying their sometimes unbearable existence. This is not about the moral justification of history and, of course, not about theodicy, but about the ineradicable need to apply the measure of the human mind to the cosmic infinity of the spiritual component of human life.

The age-old paradox of freedom, realistically achievable only on an imaginary horizon, is given an impressive resolution by the phenomenon of play. A person is a person only insofar as he has the ability at will to act and be the subject of the game. And indeed - "created in the image and likeness of God", to the key question about his name, he, unconsciously joining in from an early age the game imposed on him, artlessly calls the name assigned to him, never answering the question asked seriously, namely: "I am ". Under the guise of his own name, each of us plays out his life, in the universal essence of the game, which is similar to the serious masquerade dances of primitive tribes. "After being expelled from paradise / a person lives playing" (Lev Losev).

"Autumn of the Middle Ages", this bizarre collection of play texts, with the author's clear interest in the anthropology and sociology of culture, leads to the next step: from the sphere of culture to the sphere of human existence. The world is on the eve of a second, even more monstrous world war. During the entre deux guerres, Huizinga does everything in his power to protect culture. He serves on the International Commission for Intellectual Cooperation, the predecessor of UNESCO. Publishes a number of important works on historiography and cultural history, including the bitter, warning treatise In the Shadow of Tomorrow. Diagnosis of the spiritual troubles of our time. And so, in 1938, Homo ludens appeared, where individual and social life, all the historical and cultural development of mankind is described in terms of a game, like a game.

Long ago become a classic, this fundamental research reveals the essence of the phenomenon of play and its significance in human civilization. But the most noticeable thing here is the humanistic background of this concept, which can be traced at different stages of the cultural history of many countries and peoples. The inclination and ability of a person to clothe all aspects of his life in forms of play behavior is a confirmation of the objective value of his inherent creative aspirations - his most important asset.

The feeling and situation of the game, giving, as direct experience convinces us, the maximum possible freedom to its participants, are implemented within the context, which is reduced to the emergence of certain rigidly outlined rules - the rules of the game. No context, no rules. The meaning and significance of the game are entirely determined by the relationship of the immediate, phenomenal text of the game - to one way or another mediated universal, that is, including the whole world, the context of human existence. This is very clear in the case of a work of art - an example of such a game, the context of which is the entire universe.

The game here is not the Glasperlenspiel of Hermann Hesse, one of the thought leaders of our sixties. Glass beads are sorted out by the heroes of the novel Glass Bead Game (1943) in the cozy Swiss Shambhala, fenced off from the rest of the world, but still this-sided, bred under the transparent symbolic name of the unforgettable Castalia: In Huizinga, the game is an all-encompassing way of human activity, a universal category of human existence. It extends to literally everything, including speech: "Playing, the speaking spirit now and then jumps from the realm to the realm of thought. Any abstract expression is a speech image, any speech image is nothing but a play on words." "We would not like to delve into the lengthy question here, to what extent the means at our disposal are basically the rules of the game, that is, they are suitable only within those intellectual boundaries, the obligation of which is generally recognized. Is it always in logic in general and in syllogisms in particular, some tacit agreement comes into play that the validity of terms and concepts is recognized here in the same way as it is for chess pieces and chessboard squares? Let someone answer this question. " Here is one of the answers. Ludwig Wittgenstein calls the "language game" "a single whole: language and actions with which it is intertwined." And in a very recent concept of language, the latter appears as "the engagement by all communicators of coordinated feigned (playful) assumptions about the intentionality of physical mediators (means - DS) of communication ...

Those who communicate feignedly and consistently (in a playful order) believe that the physical mediators they use are endowed with intentionality. ”By themselves, these physical mediators - the sounds of language, graphic icons - have no meaning. But language is not only a game in its pure form. “The phenomenon of feigned (playful) positing permeates all layers of human culture.” That is, a person does not just play with meanings, but meanings themselves are the products and components of play.

Generalizing as much as possible the play principle of human activity, Huizinga, however, separates it from morality, sets moral limits for it, beyond which, they say, the serious begins. But to do this, in our opinion, was absolutely not necessary. Play is not a way of life, but a structural basis for human action. "Morality" has nothing to do with it. A moral, as well as an immoral, act is performed according to one or another rule of a particular game. Moreover. In essence, play is incompatible with violence. It seems that it is precisely moral actions that testify to the proper observance of the "rules of the game." After all, morality is nothing more than a tradition rooted in the past. What is immorality? This is a deliberately chosen offside position, that is, something absurd by definition. Serious is not the opposite of a game. "if you want to be serious, play" (Aristotle); its opposite is lack of culture and barbarism.

The book continues the publication of selected works of the outstanding Dutch historian and culturologist. The classic work of Homo Ludens [The Man Playing] is devoted to the all-encompassing essence of the phenomenon of play and its universal significance in human civilization. The articles Tasks of the history of culture, On the historical ideals of life, The political and military significance of knightly ideas in the late Middle Ages, and the Problem of the Renaissance comprehensively consider the still topical philosophical and methodological issues in the field of history and culturology. reveal the theoretical and moral foundations of J. Heizinga's approach to history and culture The published works, with their analysis of the fundamental problems of the theory and history of culture, are marked by high scientific value, clarity and convincing presentation, brightness and variety of factual material, breadth of coverage, undoubted artistic merit.

Homo Ludens. Articles on the history of culture

HOMO LUDENS. ARTIKELEN OVER DE CULTUURGESCHIEDENIS

Scientific commentary by D.E. Kharitonovich

The publication is carried out with the financial support of the "Nederiands Literatir Productie- en Vertalingenfonds"

ISBN 5-89493-010-3

WARNING. NARRATION TEXT IN GAME CONTEXT

Two books made Johan Heizinga famous. These are "Autumn of the Middle Ages" (I volume of this edition) and "Homo ludens" [The playing man]. Throughout the whole "Autumn of the Middle Ages" a well-known expression from the First Epistle to the Corinthians runs as a refrain: "Videmus nunc per speculum in aenigmate, tunc autem facie ad faciem" Cor. 13, 12]. From the point of view of the narrative, this comparison evokes the memory of Stendhal, who likened the novel to a mirror lying on the high road. It impassively and objectively reflects everything that floats by. Isn't that the story? To be dispassionate and objective - is this not what the historian is striving for? However, is it possible to rely on a mirror - speculum - with all the speculations that follow from this?

The mirror is par excellence a symbol of uncertainty. The fragility of the arising reflections, the inscrutability and mystery behind the looking glass, it seems, conceal an inevitable self-deception. But what, then, is the objectivity of the historian - objectivity, the striving for which is invariably accompanied by ambiguity, as Joseph Brodsky would later say? And this is what Huizinga himself said: "It is my deeply rooted conviction that the entire mental work of a historian is constantly passing through a series of antinomies" (one of the most graphic examples is the article The Problem of the Renaissance published in this volume).

The very concept of a mirror is antinomic. Doesn't the phrase from the First Epistle to the Corinthians speak about this? A mirror dim here will clear up there. The river of historical Time will be transformed into the ocean of Eternity, whose memory invariably keeps in itself the Spirit of God, once reflected there, an image from Tyutchev's future: "When the last hour of nature strikes ..." - Brodsky returned to the past: "I always thought that if the Spirit of God was worn over the waters ... "Lev Losev, pointing out that for Brodsky the face of God is forever preserved in the memory of the ocean mirror, speaks of

"The Autumn of the Middle Ages" arose as a man's response to a monstrously inhuman period in European history. But not only that. The culture that saves us from the onset of barbarism requires understanding. The justification of history, without which the existence of religious consciousness is inconceivable (namely, consciousness, and not a worldview that should not be irrational in a thinking person!), We derive from the spiritualized - and spiritualizing - fruits of creative genius. However, it is necessary to find a certain universal rule, a certain universal sphere of activity, say even a certain universal space that reconciles people, gives them at least some chances, justifying their sometimes unbearable existence. This is not about the moral justification of history and, of course, not about theodicy, but about the ineradicable need to apply the measure of the human mind to the cosmic infinity of the spiritual component of human life.

The age-old paradox of freedom, realistically achievable only on an imaginary horizon, is given an impressive resolution by the phenomenon of play. A person is a person only insofar as he has the ability at will to act and be the subject of the game. And indeed - "created in the image and likeness of God", to the key question about his name, he, unconsciously joining in from an early age the game imposed on him, artlessly calls the name assigned to him, never answering the question asked seriously, namely: "I am ". Under the guise of his own name, each of us plays out his life, in the universal essence of the game, which is similar to the serious masquerade dances of primitive tribes. "After being expelled from paradise / a person lives playing" (Lev Losev).

"Autumn of the Middle Ages", this bizarre collection of play texts, with the author's clear interest in the anthropology and sociology of culture, leads to the next step: from the sphere of culture to the sphere of human existence. The world is on the eve of a second, even more monstrous world war. During the entre deux guerres, Huizinga does everything in his power to protect culture. He serves on the International Commission for Intellectual Cooperation, the predecessor of UNESCO. Publishes a number of important works on historiography and cultural history, including the bitter, warning treatise In the Shadow of Tomorrow. Diagnosis of the spiritual troubles of our time. And so, in 1938, Homo ludens appeared, where individual and social life, all the historical and cultural development of mankind is described in terms of a game, like a game.

Long ago become a classic, this fundamental research reveals the essence of the phenomenon of play and its significance in human civilization. But the most noticeable thing here is the humanistic background of this concept, which can be traced at different stages of the cultural history of many countries and peoples. The inclination and ability of a person to clothe all aspects of his life in forms of play behavior is a confirmation of the objective value of his inherent creative aspirations - his most important asset.

The feeling and situation of the game, giving, as direct experience convinces us, the maximum possible freedom to its participants, are implemented within the context, which is reduced to the emergence of certain rigidly outlined rules - the rules of the game. No context, no rules. The meaning and significance of the game are entirely determined by the relationship of the immediate, phenomenal text of the game - to one way or another mediated universal, that is, including the whole world, the context of human existence. This is very clear in the case of a work of art - an example of such a game, the context of which is the entire universe.