GAMES AND PLAYING IN ANGELA CARTER’S NOVEL WISE CHILDREN
GAMES AND PLAYING IN ANGELA CARTER’S NOVEL WISE CHILDREN

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the elements of Johan Huizinga’s game theory in Angela Carter’s novel Wise Children. The novel, which depicts the life of twin sisters Dora and Nora Chance, former dancers and actresses, exemplifies Huizinga’s idea that culture does not originate from games, but that it rather develops in and through them. The main elements of playing which were analysed are the music and dancing and the novel’s protagonists’ attitude towards them as well as the costumes and life energies that novel’s main protagonists have, despite their age. These elements were analyzed so as to show that both Huizinga and Carter saw games as a way to both legitimize the illegitimate through theater, music and dancing, but also to redefine social subversiveness and the concept of the carnivalesque.

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