Playing with play: a test case of ?ethocriticism?

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This paper provides both a concrete illustration and a theoretical discussion of ‘ethocriticism’, that is the application of ethological concepts to literary criticism. The illustration superimposes a basic model of animal play on three French literary masterpieces featuring the theme of play. In spite of the different periods, styles and genres of these examples, the play activities of the characters are found to be consistent with some general characteristics of animal play and to fulfil the same long range function for the social group involved in the work as play does for the species in the animal world. The first part of the theoretical discussion examines the conditions of an optimum use of ethocriticism without challenging its overall legitimacy. It suggests that the method is most convincing when going beyond the literary content and, instead, comparing the structures and functions of the literary forms to structures and functions of various animal behavior. The second part attempts to situate ethocriticism in relation to the major contemporary trends in literary theory. The extent to which it could gain ground depends on how radically these theories deny the connection of ‘words’ and ‘things’. Ethocriticism remains acceptable to any theory allowing for the presence in literary texts of behavioral components autonomous from the historical and collective determinism of language. Finally, if one agrees with the truly creative role of artistic forms as a positive existential response to the elusive concept of reality, the most promising vein of ethocriticism should, here again, focus on the biological elements as metamorphosed into formal structures rather than as content. Thus the fundamental energies we share with the rest of life as well as our uniqueness as a species would be respected.