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Critical games

On play and seriousness in academia, literature and life

By Tim Beasley-Murray

Critical games
Hardcover -
  • Price: £85.00
  • ISBN: 9781526177773
  • Publish Date: Jun 2025
  • Publisher: Manchester University Press
  • Pre-Order £85.00

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    Book Information

    • Format: Hardcover
    • Pages: 328
    • Price: £85.00
    • Published Date: June 2025

    Description

    Critical Games is about the games we play (whether we know it or not), the ways we play them (for fun, but also to win, and to gain approval from others), and what happens when they get out of hand. The book interrogates the theory of play and gaming, with a particular focus on the games played by literary authors and literary critics. Drawing on (often self-critical) autobiography, as well as readings in texts across a range of languages, Tim Beasley-Murray plays with academic conventions to highlight what is at stake in them, turning to the Game of Literature, from Kafka to Carrère, to seek models and warnings of the outcomes of taking games too seriously, or not taking them seriously enough.

    Contents

    Introduction
    Part I: The game of academia
    1. 'The most glorious kind of play'
    2. The Slovene art theorist and Abraham the Inuk
    3. Learning to play critical games (an autobiographical sketch)
    4. What is at stake
    5. 'Back to life, back to reality'
    Part II: The game of literature
    6. Literary play
    7. Fictional games that get out of hand
    8. Pacts and power
    9. How writing intervenes in life
    Part III: End Game
    10. Playing games with Emmanuel Carrère
    Conclusion: final whistle
    Index

    Author

    Tim Beasley-Murray is Associate Professor of European Thought and Culture at University College London

    Critical games

    By Tim Beasley-Murray

    Hardcover £85.00 / $130.00

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