Homo Ludens

Name: Homo Ludens
Author: Johan Huizinga

by Johan Huizinga

Essay defining play as primary and necessary condition for generation of culture

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About the author

Johan Huizinga

Dutch cultural historian whose The Waning of the Middle Ages is a masterpiece of historical evocation and Homo Ludens is the foundational text of play theory. He argued that play is a primary cultural activity underlying art, law, and war. He died in Nazi captivity.

More by Johan Huizinga

The Waning of the Middle AgesStudy of late medieval European mentality, art, and culture on cusp of Renaissance
Erasmus and the Age of ReformationBiography of humanist scholar Erasmus and the intellectual ferment of Renaissance
In the Shadow of TomorrowEssays prophesying the spiritual and cultural crisis of the twentieth century
Dutch Civilization in the Seventeenth CenturyStudy of Dutch cultural achievements and intellectual life during golden age
The Autumn of the Middle AgesRevised edition reexamining late medieval European mentality and cultural transition