The first aim addresses why medieval pastimes-such as board games, sporting, jousting, performance, and other recreational activities-have been erroneously excluded from the scope of scholarly investigation in the field of Cultural Game Studies. Yes, indeed, Patterson's splendid anthology of scholars effectively and duly beckons its readers to concede that the time has come for the medieval ludic to be heralded in the vaulted halls of Medieval Studies and welcomed onto the playing field of Cultural Game Studies.įrom the onset, in the "Introduction: Setting Up the Board," Patterson concernedly outlines a two-fold, far-reaching objective for the diverse collection that primarily deals with "the tension between games and the real world" (2).
Serina Patterson's edited collection Games and Gaming in Medieval Literature, Palgrave Macmillan's latest entry in their "The New Middle Ages" series, superbly acknowledges this seemingly overlooked truism: the medieval ludic was a serious "maker" and performer of cultural "play" (i.e. In sum, medieval games encompass and are cultural production.
Nhora Lucía did Lewis Carroll know that when he mixed fantasy with logic in Through the Looking Glass (1871), he reaffirmed what the Middle Ages already knew about games and "play": ludic pastimes are thought-provoking endeavors, inhabit seemingly real qua magical and/or imaginary qua quotidian domains, could turn one's fortunes, derive from an intricate web of social and political practices, and include objects of "play" that on face value appear ordinary and commonplace.
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