"And Tell Me About Your Τoys!": Aspects and Functions of Play in Christos Boulotis's Illustrated Stories

Abstract

Play and toys occupy an emblematic position in the fictional microcosm of Christos Boulotis. An ardent collector of toys himself and founder of the Museum of History of Children's Toys and Books on the island of Lemnos, Boulotis adopts a distinctly multifaceted approach to the literary reconstruction of the concept of play. This study aims to shed light precisely on these diverse aspects of Boulotis’s work, drawing on his broader literary output. Specifically, it looks into the presence of play as a "toy"—particularly in the form of an artistic object—which carries various connotations as to the role it may exercise on the aesthetic formation of the child-reader and the resistance it may rise in them towards a technocratically constructed surrounding reality. The paper further delves into the concept of play as "childist," in as far as Boulotis explores not only the relationship of his child characters with their peers but also the theme of intergenerational relationships. Furthermore, the notion of play is viewed in association with the concept of animism and in this context Boulotis’s interrelation with his predecessors in the field of children’s fiction such as Hans Christian Andersen and Carlo Collodi is highlighted, along with the dialogue he seems to initiate with posthumanist sensibilities. Additionally, this study touches upon the metafictional use of play as a metaphor for the playful transactional relationship between the literary text and the reader. Through a detailed examination of the trope of play, the paper aims to demonstrate how it is connected with the notion of childhood, as constructed by the author, as well as how it is intertwined with his perception of nostalgia.