Koubová Alice, Play and the constitution of sociality

Filosofický časopis 2018/2, s. 205 - 220

The aim of this article is to think through the relation between the structure of play and the constitution of sociality, particularly in the light of the work of the key theoretician of play, Johan Huizinga, but also with reference to other authors such as D. W. Winnicott, T. S. Henricks and J. Butler. In view of the extensive field covered by the study of the conduct of play and of the heterogeneity of the phenomenon of play, this study confines itself to an inquiry into the complex character of the ambivalent relation between rationality and irrationality; goal-directedness and the internality of goals; playfulness and responsibility; the individual and the society in the context of play. The study argues that play is a space of ambivalence which enables the cultivation of the creative negotiation of the relations of power, including subversive acts and transformation, the ability to combine the attitude of dependence with authority, the sacred with the everyday, the abilities of communication with otherness. Out of this space there is also born sociality.