Decolonizing Play: An Examination of Ludic Literature

Abstract

This thesis examines the usefulness of play as a medium independent concept within literary studies. It is argued that literature can be a form of play in two distinct ways. First, through the freedom within a text, the reader is invited to play and interact with the text. Second, the text constitutes a form of play by creating two or several systems within the text that interact with each other. Both these different forms of play, create ludic texts that are not experienced as stable representations but as texts that exist or are created in a state of motion.