Homo Ludens as a Comic Character in Selected American Films

• Main Author: Skweres, Artur (Author)
• Corporate Author: SpringerLink (Online service)
• Format: Electronic eBook
• Language: English
• Published: Cham : Springer International Publishing : Imprint: Springer, 2017.
• Series: Second Language Learning and Teaching,
• Subjects: Education.; Motion pictures > United States.; Creativity and Arts Education.; American Cinema.

This book reveals the hitherto critically disregarded ludic elements in popular American comedy films, building on and expanding the theories developed by Johan Huizinga in his classic study Homo Ludens(1938) and Roger Caillois in Les jeux et les hommes (1958). To address the lack of attention paid...

Table of Contents:

• Comic Character as Homo Ludens
• Agon in Groundhog Day and Feds
• Alea in Spies Like Us, Bowfinger, Taking Care of Business, and Brewster’s Millions
• Mimicry in ¡Three Amigos!, Austin Powers, and HouseSitter
• Ilinx in Rush Hour and Showtime
• Conclusion.