Repairing Play

A Black Phenomenology

Aaron Trammell

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English

MIT Press
28 March 2023

Media studies

Series: Playful Thinking

A provocative study that reconsiders our notion of play-and how its deceptively wholesome image has harmed and erased people of color.

A provocative study that reconsiders our notion of play-and how its deceptively wholesome image has harmed and erased people of color.

Contemporary theorists present play as something wholly constructive and positive. But this broken definition is drawn from a White European philosophical tradition that ignores the fact that play can, and often does, hurt. In fact, this narrow understanding of play has been complicit in the systemic erasure of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) from the domain of leisure. In this book, Aaron Trammell proposes a corrective- a radical reconsideration of play that expands its definition to include BIPOC suffering, subjugation, and taboo topics such as torture. As he challenges and decolonizes White European thought, Trammell maps possible ways to reconcile existing theories with the fact that play is often hurtful and toxic.

Trammell upends current notions by exploring play's function as a tool in the subjugation of BIPOC. As he shows, the phenomenology of play is a power relationship. Even in innocent play, human beings subtly discipline each other to remain within unspoken rules. Going further, Trammell departs from mainstream theory to insist that torture can be play. Approaching it as such reveals play's role in subjugating people in general and renders visible the long-ignored experiences of BIPOC. Such an inclusive definition of play becomes a form of intellectual reparation, correcting the notion that play must give pleasure while also recasting play in a form that focuses on the deep, painful, and sometimes traumatic depths of living.

By: Aaron Trammell
Imprint: MIT Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 203mm, Width: 133mm,
Weight: 369g
ISBN: 9780262545273
ISBN 10: 0262545276
Series: Playful Thinking
Pages: 120
Publication Date: 28 March 2023
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

On Thinking Playfully vii Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 1 Decolonizing Play 21 2 Play as Affect 41 3 Play as Capture 55 4 Torture and the Black American Experience 71 5 Recentering Blackness in Games and Play 85 Conclusion: Repairing Play 101 Notes 111 References 119 Index 127

Aaron Trammell is Assistant Professor of Informatics at the University of California, Irvine. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Analog Game Studies and Multimedia Editor of the journal Sounding Out!

Reviews for Repairing Play: A Black Phenomenology

“Repairing Play: A Black Phenomenology highlights the long-overdue need to explore how the American conceptualization of play becomes romanticized through a White racial lens. As the title suggests, author Aaron Trammell argues that our understanding of play is awed, incomplete, and even harmful.” —American Journal of Play “Repairing Play may inspire other scholars interested in research on sports to revisit conventional definitions that erase or further marginalize the experiences of Black people and others in America and in other contexts.” —International Journal for Sport and Religion