Roger Caillois
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Roger Caillois (; 3 March 1913 – 21 December 1978) was a French
intellectual An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and reflection about the reality of society, and who proposes solutions for the normative problems of society. Coming from the world of culture, either as a creator or a ...
whose idiosyncratic work brought together
literary criticism Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...
,
sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...
,
ludology Game studies, also known as ludology (from ''ludus'', "game", and ''-logia'', "study", "research"), is the study of games, the act of playing them, and the players and cultures surrounding them. It is a field of cultural studies that deals with a ...
and
philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...
by focusing on diverse subjects such as
game A game is a structured form of play (activity), play, usually undertaken for enjoyment, entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator s ...
s and
play Play most commonly refers to: * Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment * Play (theatre), a work of drama Play may refer also to: Computers and technology * Google Play, a digital content service * Play Framework, a Java framework * Pla ...
as well as the
sacred Sacred describes something that is dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity; is considered worthy of spiritual respect or devotion; or inspires awe or reverence among believers. The property is often ascribed to objects (a ...
. He was also instrumental in introducing Latin American authors such as
Jorge Luis Borges Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known bo ...
,
Pablo Neruda Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto (12 July 1904 – 23 September 1973), better known by his pen name and, later, legal name Pablo Neruda (; ), was a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician who won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature. Nerud ...
and
Miguel Ángel Asturias Miguel Ángel Asturias Rosales (; October 19, 1899 – June 9, 1974) was a Nobel Prize-winning Guatemalan poet-diplomat, novelist, playwright and journalist. Asturias helped establish Latin American literature's contribution to mainstream We ...
to the French public. After his death, the French Literary award
Prix Roger Caillois The prix Roger Caillois is an annual literary prize established in 1991 in partnership with the PEN Club in France and the as well as the Society of readers and friends of Roger Caillois, awarded to both a Latin American and a French author. Sinc ...
was named after him in 1991.


Biography

Caillois was born in
Reims Reims ( , , ; also spelled Rheims in English) is the most populous city in the French department of Marne, and the 12th most populous city in France. The city lies northeast of Paris on the Vesle river, a tributary of the Aisne. Founded by ...
, but moved to
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
as a child. There he studied at the
Lycée Louis-le-Grand The Lycée Louis-le-Grand (), also referred to simply as Louis-le-Grand or by its acronym LLG, is a public Lycée (French secondary school, also known as sixth form college) located on rue Saint-Jacques in central Paris. It was founded in the ...
, an elite school where students took courses after graduating from secondary school in order to prepare for entry examinations for France's most prestigious university, the
École Normale Supérieure École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...
. Caillois's efforts paid off and he graduated as a ''normalien'' in 1933. After this he studied at the
École Pratique des Hautes Études École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...
, where he came into contact with thinkers such as Georges Dumézil,
Alexandre Kojève Alexandre Kojève ( , ; 28 April 1902 – 4 June 1968) was a Russian-born French philosopher and statesman whose philosophical seminars had an immense influence on 20th-century French philosophy, particularly via his integration of Hegelian con ...
and
Marcel Mauss Marcel Mauss (; 10 May 1872 – 10 February 1950) was a French sociologist and anthropologist known as the "father of French ethnology". The nephew of Émile Durkheim, Mauss, in his academic work, crossed the boundaries between sociology and ...
. The years before the war were marked by Caillois's increasingly leftist political commitment, particularly in his fight against
fascism Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy an ...
. He was also engaged in Paris's avant-garde intellectual life. With
Georges Bataille Georges Albert Maurice Victor Bataille (; ; 10 September 1897 – 9 July 1962) was a French philosopher and intellectual working in philosophy, literature, sociology, anthropology, and history of art. His writing, which included essays, novels, ...
he founded the College of Sociology, a group of intellectuals who lectured regularly to one another. Formed partly as a reaction to the
Surrealist Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...
movement that was dominant in the 1920s, the College sought to move away from surrealism's focus on the fantasy life of an individual's unconscious and focus instead more on the power of ritual and other aspects of communal life. Caillois's background in
anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...
and
sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...
, and particularly his interest in the sacred, exemplified this approach. He participated in Bataille's review ''
Acéphale ''Acéphale'' is the name of a public review created by Georges Bataille (which numbered five issues, from 1936 to 1939) and a secret society formed by Bataille and others who had sworn to keep silent. Its name is derived from the Greek ἀκέ ...
'' (1936–39). Caillois left France in 1939 for Argentina, where he stayed until the end of
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. During the war he was active in fighting the spread of Nazism in Latin America as an editor and author of anti-Nazi periodicals. From 1940 to 1945, he lived in South America. In 1948, after the War, he worked with
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
and traveled widely. In 1971 he was elected to the
Académie française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...
. In 1977, he started to write a book with the painter Bernard Mandeville. In 1978, Caillois wrote ''Le fleuve Alphée'', an award-winning autobiographical essay ( Marcel Proust Awards and
European Union Prize for Literature The European Union Prize for Literature (EUPL), established in 2009, is a European Union literary award. Its aim is to recognise outstanding new literary talents from all over Europe, to promote the circulation and translation of literature among ...
), followed by Cases d’un échiquier. He died, aged 65, in Kremlin-Bicêtre. Today Caillois is remembered for founding and editing ''
Diogenes Diogenes ( ; grc, Διογένης, Diogénēs ), also known as Diogenes the Cynic (, ) or Diogenes of Sinope, was a Greek philosopher and one of the founders of Cynicism (philosophy). He was born in Sinope, an Ionian colony on the Black Sea ...
'', an interdisciplinary journal funded by
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
, and ''La Croix du Sud'' (''Southern Cross''), a collection of books translated from contemporary Latin American authors published by Gallimard that is responsible for introducing authors such as
Jorge Luis Borges Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known bo ...
,
Alejo Carpentier Alejo Carpentier y Valmont (, ; December 26, 1904 – April 24, 1980) was a Cuban novelist, essayist, and musicologist who greatly influenced Latin American literature during its famous "boom" period. Born in Lausanne, Switzerland, of French an ...
and
Victoria Ocampo Ramona Victoria Epifanía Rufina Ocampo (7 April 1890 – 27 January 1979) was an Argentine writer and intellectual. Best known as an advocate for others and as publisher of the literary magazine '' Sur'', she was also a writer and critic in he ...
to the French-speaking public. He is also widely cited in the nascent field of
ludology Game studies, also known as ludology (from ''ludus'', "game", and ''-logia'', "study", "research"), is the study of games, the act of playing them, and the players and cultures surrounding them. It is a field of cultural studies that deals with a ...
, primarily from passages in his book ''Les Jeux et les Hommes(1958).'' The book has been translated to English b
Meyer Barash
in 1961 as ''
Man, Play and Games ''Man, Play and Games'' () is the influential 1961 book by the French sociologist Roger Caillois, (French ''Les jeux et les hommes'', 1958) on the sociology of play and games or, in Caillois' terms, sociology derived from play. Caillois interpr ...
''.


Caillois' key ideas on play

Caillois built critically on an earlier theory of play developed by the
Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...
cultural historian
Johan Huizinga Johan Huizinga (; 7 December 1872 – 1 February 1945) was a Dutch historian and one of the founders of modern cultural history. Life Born in Groningen as the son of Dirk Huizinga, a professor of physiology, and Jacoba Tonkens, who died two y ...
in his book ''
Homo Ludens ''Homo Ludens'' is a book originally published in Dutch in 1938 by Dutch historian and cultural theorist Johan Huizinga. It discusses the importance of the play element of culture and society. Huizinga suggests that play is primary to and a nece ...
'' (1938). Huizinga had discussed the importance of play as an element of culture and society. He used the term "Play Theory" to define the conceptual space in which play occurs, and argued that play is a necessary (though not sufficient) condition for the generation of culture. Caillois began his own book ''
Man, Play and Games ''Man, Play and Games'' () is the influential 1961 book by the French sociologist Roger Caillois, (French ''Les jeux et les hommes'', 1958) on the sociology of play and games or, in Caillois' terms, sociology derived from play. Caillois interpr ...
'' (1961) with Huizinga's definition of play:
''Summing up the formal characteristics of play we might call it a free activity standing quite consciously outside "ordinary" life as being "not serious," but at the same time absorbing the player intensely and utterly. It is an activity connected with no material interest, and no profit can be gained by it. It proceeds within its own proper boundaries of time and space according to fixed rules and in an orderly manner. It promotes the formation of social groupings which tend to surround themselves with secrecy and to stress their difference from the common world by disguise or other means.''
Caillois disputed Huizinga's emphasis on competition in play. He also noted the considerable difficulty in arriving at a comprehensive definition of play, concluding that play is best described by six core characteristics: * 1. it is free, or not obligatory * 2. it is separate from the routine of life, occupying its own time and space * 3. it is uncertain, so that the results of play cannot be pre-determined and the player's initiative is involved * 4. it is unproductive in that it creates no wealth, and ends as it begins economically speaking * 5. it is governed by rules that suspend ordinary laws and behaviours and that must be followed by players * 6. it involves imagined realities that may be set against 'real life'. Caillois' definition has itself been criticized by subsequent thinkers; and ultimately, despite Caillois' attempt at a definitive treatment, definitions of play remain open to negotiation. Caillois distinguished four categories of games: * Agon, or competition. It's the form of play in which a specific set of skills is put to the test among players (strength, intelligence, memory). The winner is who proves to have mastery of said skill through the game, for example a quiz game is a competition of intelligence, the winner proves that it's more intelligent than the other players. E.g.
chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...
. * Alea, or chance, the opposite of Agon, Caillois describes Alea as "the resignation of will, an abandonment to destiny." If Agon used the skills of players to determine a victor Alea leaves that to luck, an external agent decides who the victor is. E.g. playing a
slot machine A slot machine (American English), fruit machine (British English) or poker machine (Australian English and New Zealand English) is a gambling machine that creates a game of chance for its customers. Slot machines are also known pejoratively a ...
. *
Mimicry In evolutionary biology, mimicry is an evolved resemblance between an organism and another object, often an organism of another species. Mimicry may evolve between different species, or between individuals of the same species. Often, mimicry f ...
, or mimesis, or role playing Caillois defines it as "When the individual plays to believe, to make himself or others believe that he is different from himself." E.g. playing an online role-playing game. * Ilinx (Greek for "whirlpool"), or
vertigo Vertigo is a condition where a person has the sensation of movement or of surrounding objects moving when they are not. Often it feels like a spinning or swaying movement. This may be associated with nausea, vomiting, sweating, or difficulties w ...
, in the sense of altering perception by experiencing a strong emotion (panic, fear, ecstasy) the stronger the emotion is, the stronger the sense of excitement and fun becomes. E.g. taking
hallucinogen Hallucinogens are a large, diverse class of psychoactive drugs that can produce altered states of consciousness characterized by major alterations in thought, mood, and perception as well as other changes. Most hallucinogens can be categorized ...
s, riding roller coasters, children spinning until they fall down. It's worth noting that these categories can be combined to create a more diverse experience and enhance the players interaction, for example poker is a form of Agon-Alea, Alea is present in the form of the cards and their combinations, but it's not the only winning factor; since Agon is present in the form of bluffing, making your opponent think you have better cards by rising the bet, therefore putting pressure on the other players and thus making it possible to win by having a card combination but winning by implementing the bluff skill. Caillois also described a dualistic polarity within which the four categories of games can be variously located: * Paidia or uncontrolled fantasy, spontaneous play through improvisation, the rules of which are created during playing time. E.g.
concert A concert is a live music performance in front of an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, choir, or band. Concerts are held in a wide variety a ...
s and
festivals A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival co ...
. *
Ludus Ludus may refer to: * ''Ludus'' (ancient Rome) (plural ''ludi''), several meanings around "play, game, sport, training" **''Ludi'', public games held for the benefit and entertainment of the Roman people * Luduș, a town in Transylvania, Romania ...
which requires effort, patience, skill, or ingenuity, the rules are set from the beginning and the game was designed before playing time. E.g. the Chinese game of Go. Caillois disagreed particularly with Huizinga's treatment of gambling. Huizinga had argued in ''Homo Ludens'' that the risk of death or of losing money corrupts the freedom of "pure play". Thus to Huizinga, card-games are not play but "deadly earnest business". Moreover, Huizinga considered gambling to be a "futile activity" which inflicts damage on society. Thus Huizinga argued that gambling is a corruption of a more original form of play. Against this, Caillois argued that gambling is a true game, a mode of play that falls somewhere between games of skill or competition and games of chance (i.e. between the ''Agon'' and ''Alea'' categories). Whether or not a game involves money or a risk of death, it can be considered a form of ''Agon'' or ''Alea'' as long as it provides social activity and triumph for the winner. Gambling is "like a combat in which equality of chances is artificially created, in order that adversaries should confront each other under ideal conditions, susceptible of giving precise and incontestable value to the winner’s triumph."


Caillois' interest in mimicry

When Caillois worked with Bataille at the College of Sociology, they worked on two essays on insects in the 1930s: ''‘La mante religieuse. De la biologie à la psychanalyse’'' (1934) and ''‘Mimétisme et la psychasthénie légendaire’'' (1935) Caillois identifies "the praying mantis and mimicking animals as nature’s automatons and masquerades." He formulates "in his peculiarly naturalist fashion what it would mean to act and create without the intervention of the sovereign ego, that magnificent artifact of the modern West that
surrealism Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...
and the
avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
have taken such drastic measures to counteract." These articles "might read like two obscurantist entomological studies that, in a way some would describe as bizarre, try to contradict all evolutionary explications for animal cannibalism and mimicry. Their publication in the context of he surrealist journal''
Minotaure ''Minotaure'' was a Surrealist-oriented magazine founded by Albert Skira and E. Tériade in Paris and published between 1933 and 1939. ''Minotaure'' published on the plastic arts, poetry, and literature, avant garde, as well as articles on esoter ...
'' makes it possible to see them as the search for figures that evidence the possibility of intelligence without thought, creativity without art, and agency in the absence of the (human) agent."Cheng, Joyce: "Mask, Mimicry, Metamorphosis: Roger Caillois, Walter Benjamin and Surrealism in the 1930s" Modernism/Modernity (Baltimore, MD) (16:1) Jan 2009, 61–86. (2009)


Roger Caillois French Literary Prize

The Roger Caillois French Literary Prize for Latin American Literature was created in 1991 and has also been awarded to figures such as
Carlos Fuentes Carlos Fuentes Macías (; ; November 11, 1928 – May 15, 2012) was a Mexican novelist and essayist. Among his works are ''The Death of Artemio Cruz'' (1962), '' Aura'' (1962), '' Terra Nostra'' (1975), ''The Old Gringo'' (1985) and ''Christophe ...
,
José Donoso José Manuel Donoso Yáñez (5 October 1924 – 7 December 1996), known as José Donoso, was a Chilean writer, journalist and professor. He lived most of his life in Chile, although he spent many years in self-imposed exile in Mexico, the United ...
and
Adolfo Bioy Casares Adolfo Bioy Casares (; 15 September 1914 – 8 March 1999) was an Argentine fiction writer, journalist, diarist, and translator. He was a friend and frequent collaborator with his fellow countryman Jorge Luis Borges. He is the author of the Fa ...
.


Bibliography

''The Saragossa Manuscript'' by
Jan Potocki Count Jan Potocki (; 8 March 1761 – 23 December 1815) was a Polish nobleman, ethnologist, linguist, traveller and author of the Enlightenment period, whose life and exploits made him a celebrated figure in Poland. He is known chiefly for his pi ...
, ed. and preface by Roger Caillois, trans. Elisabeth Abbott. New York, Orion Press, 1960. ''Man and the Sacred'', trans. Meyer Barash. New York, Free Press of Glencoe, 1960. ''
Man, Play and Games ''Man, Play and Games'' () is the influential 1961 book by the French sociologist Roger Caillois, (French ''Les jeux et les hommes'', 1958) on the sociology of play and games or, in Caillois' terms, sociology derived from play. Caillois interpr ...
'', trans. Meyer Barash. New York, Free Press of Glencoe, 1961. ''The Dream Adventure'', ed. Roger Caillois. New York, Orion Press, 1963. ''The Mask of Medusa''. New York, C.N. Potter, 1964. ''The Dream and Human Societies'', ed. Roger Caillois and G. E. Von Grunebaum. Berkeley, University of California Press, 1966. ''L'ecriture des pierres''. Geneve, Editions d'Art Albert Skira, 1970. ''Le champ des signes: récurrences dérobées: aperçu sur l'unité et la continuité du monde physique intellectuel et imaginaire ou premiers éléments d'une poétique généralisée'', with 25 illustrations by Estève. Paris, Hermann, 1978. ''The Mystery Novel'', trans. Roberto Yahni and A.W. Sadler. New York, Laughing Buddha Press, 1984. ''The Writing of Stones'', with an introduction by Marguerite Yourcenar. Charlottesville, University of Virginia Press, 1985. ''The Edge of Surrealism: A Roger Caillois Reader'', ed. Claudine Frank, trans. Claudine Frank and Camille Naish. Durham, Duke University Press, 2003. ''Pontius Pilate: A Novel'', trans. Charles Lam Markmann, with an introduction by Ivan Strenski. Charlottesville, University of Virginia Press, 2006.


Notes


References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Caillois, Roger 1913 births 1978 deaths Writers from Reims École Normale Supérieure alumni École pratique des hautes études alumni Commanders of the Ordre national du Mérite Lycée Louis-le-Grand alumni Members of the Académie Française Officiers of the Légion d'honneur Burials at Montparnasse Cemetery French surrealist writers Spanish–French translators Translators of Jorge Luis Borges 20th-century French translators French male writers Game studies