Games and Gaming in Medieval Literature (The New Middle Ages)

The first-of-its-kind, Games and Gaming in Medieval Literature explores the depth and breadth of games in medieval literature and culture. Chapters span from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries, and cover England, France, Denmark, Poland, and Spain, re-examining medieval games in diverse social settings such as the church, court, and household. Games and Gaming in Medieval Literature constitutes the first collection that explores the depth and breadth of games in medieval literature and culture. With geographical and methodological diversity of interdisciplinary scholarship, this volume presents fresh critical discussions of medieval games as vehicles for cultural signification, and challenges scholars to reconsider how games were understood by medieval writers, compilers, scribes, players, audiences, and communities. Chapters span from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries, and cover Europe from England, France, Denmark, Poland, and Spain. This volume not only brings to the forefront a re-examination of medieval games in diverse social settings - the Church, the court, the school, and the gentry household - but also their multifaceted relation to literary discourses as systems of meaning, interactive experiences, and modes of representation "This diverse and accessible collection takes on games and gaming in the European Middle Ages in various but complementary ways: by putting them in their historical context, by close readings of literary texts, and by bringing contemporary game theory to bear on the history of games. Game theorists who have focused exclusively on games in the digital age will learn a good deal about their analog history. Games and Gaming in Medieval Literature is a fine contribution to cultural game theory."--Kathleen Coyne Kelly, Professor of English, Northeastern University, USA "In this comprehensive and exciting new collection, Serina Patterson presents a wealth of cutting-edge scholarship centered around medieval games, gaming, and play. These interdisciplinary essays cover a vast and impressive geographical and chronological sweep, and are truly path-breaking in their insistence on the fruitful comparison of medieval and modern gaming practices. Patterson's own work, and the collection more broadly, demonstrate some of the best work being undertaken in the area of medieval game studies today."--Emma Cayley, Head of Modern Languages and Associate Professor of Medieval French, University of Exeter, UK "Games are serious business, and the essays in Serina Patterson's Games and Gaming in Medieval Literature chart exciting new territory in interrogating the porous boundaries between games, gaming, and 'real' life and provide dynamic new readings in surveying a wide variety of game texts and ludic activities from across Europe in the later Middle Ages. This provocative anthology brings well-known texts into clearer focus and gives lesser-known texts new weight." - Daniel Kline, Chair and Professor of English, University of Alaska Anchorage, USA Front Matter....Pages i-xvii Introduction: Setting Up the Board....Pages 1-20 Front Matter....Pages 21-21 “Ludus Inhonestus Et Illicitus?” Chess, Games, and the Church in Medieval Europe....Pages 23-43 Games and Education in Medieval England....Pages 45-60 Words with Friends, Courtly Edition: The Jeux-Partis of Thibaut De Champagne....Pages 61-78 Sexy, Naughty, and Lucky in Love: Playing Ragemon le Bon in English Gentry Households....Pages 79-102 Front Matter....Pages 103-103 Church, Court, and Tavern: Games and Social Hierarchy in Some Medieval Motets....Pages 105-125 Colonizing the Otherworld in Walewein....Pages 127-145 The Knight’s Earnest Game in Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales....Pages 147-168 “Rounes to Rede”: Ludic Reading Games in the Alliterative Wheel of Fortune Poem Somer Someday....Pages 169-186 Textual Games and Virtuality in Spanish Cancionero Poetry....Pages 187-208 Afterword: Medieval Ludens....Pages 209-222 Back Matter....Pages 223-241