Introduction

In the past century, numerous studies have focused on exile and utopia as independent concepts, but have largely ignored the close correlation between them and have only rarely placed them in a general cultural-theoretical or philosophical framework. This chapter reviews the ways in which the concepts of play and liminality have been employed in cultural theory. It explores the relation between play and liminality in general. Play is a 'free' activity not only because it stands outside ordinary life, but also because it is not connected with material interest or work, and 'no profit can be gained by it'. It is being carried out for the sake of pure pleasure and, although it is not 'serious', it absorbs the player 'intensely and utterly'. Like play, liminality has received an ambiguous treatment in Western thought, and largely for the same reasons. The view of exile as a form of liminal play allows valuing it as a potentially positive cultural experience.