-
217846
Opie, Iona
- The People in the Playground
Oxford University Press, 1993.
First edition. Hardcover, octavo, 240pp. Pages lightly toned; else very good to near fine in lightly scuffed dustwrapper. For nearly forty years Iona Opie worked with her late husband Peter on a notable series of books on the traditional lore of childhood. As part of the fieldwork from 1970 onwards, she visited the local school playground every week. The children accepted Mrs. Opie as a regular feature of the playground, a harmless collector of jokes and games. Her aim . . . was to provide the living context of school-lore, rather than the lore itself. She achieved this by writing down events exactly as they happened and conversations exactly as they were spoken. The result is a startingly honest portrait of [elementary school] children at play, at once charming and hilarious, alarming and poignant, and full of infectious vitality.We see the games seasons as they come and go, watch ephemeral amusements being devised and forgotten, and see how school-lore evolves and is transmitted. Much fundamental human behaviour is recorded: the differences in attitudes between the sexes; the boys' irrevocable devotion to fighting and football, and their innate kindness; the art of story-telling; the friendships and enmities; the excited interest in sex; the diversity of characters; and, above all, the hilarity which pervades the playground, creating entertainment out of trivialities.
Click here to order
$23
|
|
