Slantwise Moves: Games, Literature, and Social Invention in Nineteenth-Century..

Description: Corgipack presents ... Slantwise Moves: Games, Literature, and Social Invention in Nineteenth-Century America (Material Texts) Material Texts ISBN:0812250613 Author:Douglas A. Guerra Publisher:University of Pennsylvania Press Release Date:2018 Seller Category:Games Qty Available:1 Condition:New Sku: 072168 Notes: Dust jacket condition: New. In 1860, Milton Bradley invented The Checkered Game of Life. Having journeyed from Springfield, Massachusetts, to New York City to determine interest in this combination of bright red ink, brass dials, and character-driven decision-making, Bradley exhausted his entire supply of merchandise just two days after his arrival in the city; within a few months, he had sold forty thousand copies. That same year, Walt Whitman left Brooklyn to oversee the printing of the third edition of his Leaves of Grass in Massachusetts. In Slantwise Moves, Douglas A. Guerra sees more than mere coincidence in the contemporary popularity of these superficially different cultural productions. Instead, he argues, both the book and the game were materially resonant sites of social experimentation--places where modes of collectivity and selfhood could be enacted and performed. Then as now, Guerra observes, "game" was a malleable category, mediating play in various and inventive ways: through the material forms of pasteboard, paper, and india rubber; via settings like the parlor, lawn, or public hall; and by mutually agreed-upon measurements of success, ranging from point accumulation to the creation of humorous narratives. Recovering the lives of important game designers, anthologists, and codifiers--including Anne Abbot, William Simonds, Michael Phelan, and the aforementioned Bradley--Guerra brings his study of commercially produced games into dialogue with a reconsideration of iconic literary works. Through contrapuntal close readings of texts and gameplay, he finds multiple possibilities for self-fashioning reflected in Bradley's Life and Whitman's "Song of Myself," as well as utopian social spaces on billiard tables and the pages of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Blithedale Romance alike. Highlighting meaningful overlap in the production and reception of books and games, Slantwise Moves identifies what the two have in common as material texts and as critical models of the mundane pleasures and intimacies that defined agency and social belonging in nineteenth-century America. Editorial Reviews "Slantwise Moves is an important contribution to a materialist history and analysis of the ideological work of amusement cultures in the United States . . . While scholars narrowly focused on video games may find the promise of some terms unfulfilled, Guerra presents a nuanced set of readings that has something to offer every scholar working along on the diagonal line of literature, games, and history."--Modern Philology - From the Publisher 264 pages. Games--Social aspects--United States--History--19th century, Books and reading--Social aspects--United States--History--19th century, Popular culture--United States--History--19th century, United States--Social life and customs--19th century Don't forget to check out other great deals in our eBay Store!!

Price: 63.95 USD

Location: Fulton, New York

End Time: 2024-12-02T03:35:35.000Z

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