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The 1980's saw the peak of a moral panic over fantasy role-playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons. A coalition of moral entrepreneurs that included representatives from the Christian Right, the field of psychology, and law enforcement claimed that these games were not only psychologically dangerous but an occult religion masquerading as a game. Dangerous Games explores both the history and the sociological significance of this panic. Fantasy role-playing games do share several functions in common with religion. However, religion-as a socially constructed world of shared meaning-can also be compared to a fantasy role-playing game. In fact, the claims of the moral entrepreneurs, in which they presented themselves as heroes battling a dark conspiracy, often resembled the very games of imagination they condemned as evil. By attacking the imagination, they preserved the taken-for-granted status of their own socially constructed reality. Interpreted in this way, the panic over fantasy-role playing games yields new insights about how humans play and together construct and maintain meaningful worlds. Laycock's clear and accessible writing ensures that Dangerous Games will be required reading for those with an interest in religion, popular culture, and social behavior, both in the classroom and beyond.

Fantasy games --- Role playing --- Dungeons and Dragons (Game) --- Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (Game) --- D & D (Game) --- Dungeons & Dragons (Game) --- Role enactment --- Role-taking ability --- Roleplaying --- Social role --- Acting games --- Fantasy role playing games --- Role-playing games --- Games --- Moral and ethical aspects. --- alter egos. --- christian right. --- christianity. --- conspiracy theory. --- constructed world. --- dungeons and dragons. --- fan studies. --- fantasy games. --- fantasy. --- game theory. --- gaming. --- history. --- imagination. --- law enforcement. --- media. --- mental health. --- morality. --- nonfiction. --- occult. --- play theory. --- popular culture. --- psychology. --- religion. --- religious studies. --- role playing games. --- role playing. --- roleplaying. --- rpgs. --- social behavior. --- social theory. --- sociology. --- supernatural. --- worship --- God --- fantasy and reality --- panic --- fantasy role-playing games --- 'Dungeons & Dragons' --- religious phenomena --- madness --- Satanic panic --- the imagination

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Animal Narratology interrogates what it means to narrate, to speak—speak for, on behalf of—and to voice, or represent life beyond the human, which is in itself as different as insects, bears, and dogs are from each other, and yet more, as individual as a single mouse, horse, or puma. The varied contributions to this interdisciplinary Special Issue highlight assumptions about the human perception of, attitude toward, and responsibility for the animals that are read and written about, thus demonstrating that just as “the animal” does not exist, neither does “the human”. In their zoopoetic focus, the analyses are aware that animal narratology ultimately always contains an approximation of an animal perspective in human terms and terminology, yet they make clear that what matters is how the animal is approximated and that there is an effort to approach and encounter the non-human in the first place. Many of the analyses come to the conclusion that literary animals give readers the opportunity to expand their own points of view both on themselves and others by adopting another’s perspective to the degree that such an endeavor is possible. Ultimately, the contributions call for a recognition of the many spaces, moments, and modes in which human lives are entangled with those of animals—one of which is located within the creative bounds of storytelling.

Research & information: general --- Biology, life sciences --- Animals & society --- animal narrators --- anthropocentrism --- cultural ontologies --- discourse analysis --- fiction-nonfiction distinction --- framing and footing --- life writing --- narratology --- politeness --- self-narratives --- animal studies --- human-animal studies --- speaking animals --- Tolstoy --- Bulgakov --- trauma theory --- Russian literature --- allegory --- humanism --- literary theory --- film studies --- George Orwell --- Animal Farm --- Chicken Run --- Uwe Timm --- 'Morenga' --- African history --- colonialism --- postcolonial German literature --- animal narratology --- multi-perspective narration --- animal agency --- The Plague Dogs --- Richard Adams --- unreliability --- talking animal stories --- non-human focalizer --- Pincher Martin --- non-human narrators --- intradiegetic narration --- Gerard Genette --- anthropomorphism --- Eric Linklater --- The Wind on the Moon --- direct speech --- characterization --- posthumanism --- inter-species comprehension --- Hindi cinema --- Bollywood --- animal narrator --- world literature --- empathy --- Cartesian dualism --- Maurice Merleau-Ponty --- animal poetry --- 'Inventing a Horse --- 'Spermaceti' --- eco-humanities --- eco-criticism --- eco-philosophy --- Industrial Farm Animal Production --- narrative --- plot --- conflict --- environmental crisis --- catastrophe --- play theory --- Franz Kafka --- manuscripts --- speaking-for --- narrative representation --- literary representation --- animal autobiography --- fictional autobiography --- meta-autobiography --- contextualist narratology --- cultural and literary animal studies --- poetics of knowledge --- zoology --- natural history --- equine autozoography --- horse-science --- narrative voice --- inoperativity --- singing mice --- zoopoetics --- anthropological machine --- community --- music --- Cervantes --- Novelas ejemplares --- El coloquio de los perros --- Novela del casamiento engañoso --- Siglo de Oro --- Early Modern Age --- cynicism --- Diogenes of Sinope --- Montaigne --- Derrida --- Animal Studies --- rhetoric --- animal narration --- fable --- Aesopic fables --- Greek fable --- antagonistic fables --- comics --- animals --- cinema --- sound effects --- science fiction --- Achilles --- Archilochus --- fox --- Gryllus --- Hesiod --- Homer --- Lucian --- pig --- Plutarch --- Pythagoras --- rooster --- Xanthus --- talking dogs --- agency --- animal --- dystopia --- Marie Darrieussecq --- human --- non-human --- Truismes --- Kafka studies --- adaptation studies --- intertextuality --- intermediality --- mimesis --- emulation --- imitation --- repetition --- parody --- autobiography --- genre --- entanglement --- Cixous --- dogs --- earth --- worldviews --- indigenous wisdom traditions --- relationality --- ecology --- language --- more-than-human geography --- multispecies ethnography --- ecopsychology --- anthropology --- environmental philosophy --- decolonization --- intuition --- instinct --- myth --- non-verbal communication --- IK --- TEK --- animality --- film --- White God --- filmic representation of animals --- material ecocriticism --- Moby-Dick --- Werner Herzog --- Hans Sahl --- lyric poetry --- mole --- space --- time --- species --- metamorphosis --- transformation --- exile