The main topoi and images of the game in the modern narrative of social theory: an attempt to deconstruct (non)obvious discursive practices

The object of this study is the field of contemporary social theory. Topoi, commonplaces, "statements," and practices of conceptualizing the phenomenon of play in sociological discourse are the subject matter. This article, based on an analysis of key images and discursive practices, attempts to interpret and deconstruct the contents of the theoretical thesaurus of play as a field of scientific research in social theory. In this article, play is considered not so much a social phenomenon as an intelligible construct. This lens allows us to see both the core vocabulary used to describe the phenomenon of play in sociology and key images, metaphors, mythologemes, and concepts—that is, not simple terms and ideas, but condensed fragments of a worldview and sociological imagination. The author identifies and examines in detail seven fundamental topoi of the contemporary method of describing and conceptualizing play in sociology, examining these topoi both genealogically and in terms of their heuristic potential. The research methodology draws on Michel Foucault's episteme of the archaeology of knowledge, which conceptualizes discursive practices as historical (changeable) social constructs conditioned by relations of power and subordination. To understand social phenomena, the author draws on Z. Bauman's theory of fluid modernity, as well as Byung-Chol Han's description of the state of contemporary society. A critical retrospective of key narrative topoi of play allows the author to discover important perspectives on rethinking contemporary forms of play behavior as a denial of the essence of play and to formulate a hypothesis that the image of play as a battle for recognition and symbolic capital is a form of transformation of play into non-play. It is suggested that contemporary play practices are a form of denial of the classical model of play, represented by the social structures of Modernity and described by J. Huizinga, F.G. Jünger, and R. Caillois. The novelty of the study is determined by the fact that the author not only reveals the content of the key topoi of understanding and describing the game in social theory, but also formulates theses for the reassembly of models that explain the phenomenon of the game in the spaces of a society of fatigue.