Creating Playful First Encounters with the Pre-Modern Past
Olivia Robinson editor Helen Brookman editor
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Arc Humanities Press
Published:31st Aug '23
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
This collection explores playful ways of fostering creative engagements with the medieval and early modern past and its own literary and artistic products, especially among those new to their study.
As scholars and teachers of early English, the contributors cover literary and cultural material from a range of genres within the Old English, Middle English, Tudor, and Stuart periods and collectively delve into a shared interest in facilitating what we might loosely define as “newcomer” or “non-specialist” encounters with the past: initial, exploratory contact in which prior knowledge cannot be assumed, whether involving creative professionals, experts from other disciplines, undergraduate and school students, or members of the public. Considering artworks and installation, theatre and performance and curation practices, case studies offer practice-based examples of learning and engagement which proceed primarily through creative and playful approaches. The case studies are arranged into two broad groups: those which work through performance and theatrical play of various kinds, and those which work through playful practices of production and making. All share a perspective of irreverence, of vivid immersion, and of the possibilities of conjuring with the past.
In a climate where universities are shuttering or reorganizing humanities programs and administrators are insisting that course outcomes prioritize job training, reading a book that focuses on play in the classroom feels like a joyful rebellion. The chapter authors of Creating Playful First Encounters with the Pre-Modern Past, edited by Helen Brookman and Olivia Robinson, remind us that while medieval and Early Modern literature does teach us about humanity, morality, and history, among other things, that does not mean it cannot be fun; in truth many texts were intended to be playful.[...] [M]any of the[se] playful activities could be incorporated into classrooms with fewer available resources. Thanks to the diverse ways the authors interpreted the idea of “play” in their work, a reader finds modeled here a wide range of creative methods from which to choose.
Just as play in general does for learning children, the activities discussed in Creating Playful First Encounters allow participants to gain a deeper understanding and appreciation for the literature they worked with. Thanks to the safety of Huizinga’s “magic circle,” students can step out of their comfort zones and take the texts with them, transforming them into something both familiar and alien. While reading the book for this review, I imagined many ways I could incorporate aspects of the authors’ creative examples of play in my own classes, and I believe that is a high compliment to the authors.
-- Kristi DiClemente * Medieval Perspectives 37 (2023): 146-ISBN: 9781641893060
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
146 pages
New edition