在《坎特伯里故事集》中，喬叟曾多次直接指出或間接暗示旅程中的故事競賽為一遊戲。然而，對此文本的研究文獻，卻鮮少從遊戲觀點切入分析。即便有，也多是從語言角度，來處理文本中各角色間的口語遊戲，或喬叟本人的文字遊戲，離真正的遊戲本身，似還有一段距離。有鑑於此，我試著以惠欽格及凱洛斯對遊戲的論述，做為理論框架，來分析《坎特伯里故事集》中的遊戲元素。我首先將找出證據，來證明整個朝聖之旅符合遊戲的定義，然後以其中三個故事為例，來分析四種遊戲範疇。本論文將分為五章，在第一章，我先說明遊戲長期以來被人忽視的地位，接著我將引入惠辛格及凱洛斯的論述。惠辛格提出遊戲的概念、定義，及功能；凱洛斯作為惠辛格在遊戲論述領域中的繼承人，則將惠辛格的成就，加以推展及補充，並將遊戲定義為四個範疇：競爭、機會、模仿、暈眩。所有的遊戲都可被歸納為這四類。在第一章的後半部，我將逐一從文本中，找出證據，來證明《坎特伯里故事集》在在都符合遊戲的定義。在第二章，我將討論＜騎士的故事＞中競爭與機會之運作。在第三章中，我將從模仿的層面來分析＜赦罪修士的故事＞。在第四章中，我將從暈眩的角度來看＜修女院教士的故事＞。在第五章中，我將總結前四章的要點，然後探討文學作為遊戲的可能性。最末，從遊戲的往復特性來看，我將主張《坎特伯里》遊戲尚未結束，它是遊戲昇華為藝術的最佳範本。

In many places of The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer points out that this story-telling contest would be a game. However, researches on this text have scarcely been done from the perspective of game. In view of this, I try to apply Jonah Huizinga and Roger Caillois’ concepts of game as the main theoretical framework to The Canterbury Tales. In this thesis, I justify the pilgrimage as a big game first and then discuss the elements of play in three tales respectively. The thesis is divided into five chapters. In chapter one, I recount the subordinate position of game first and then introduce Huizinga and Caillois’ discourses. Huizinga comes up with the concept, definition, and function of game; Caillois modifies Huizinga’s notions and then categorizes games into four kinds: agon, alea, mimicry, and ilinx. In the following part of chapter one, I prove that The Canterbury Tales as a whole matches the notion of a game. In chapter two, I discuss the exercises of agon and alea in The Knight’s Tale. In chapter three, I analyze The Pardoner’s Tale from the aspect of mimicry. In chapter four, I see The Nun’s Priest’s Tale from the perspective of ilinx. In chapter five, I summarize the previous chapters first, and then explore the possibility of literature as the game. I argue that the game of The Canterbury Tales is not over and that it is the sublimation form of game into art.

Bakhtin, Mikhail. Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics. Trans. and Ed. Caryl Emerson. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1984.
---. Rabelais and His World. Trans. Helene Iswolsky. Cambridge, MA: MIT P, 1968.
Baldwin, Ralph. “The Unity of The Canterbury Tales.” Chaucer Criticism: An Anthology. Ed. Richard J. Schoeck and Jerome Taylor. Notre Dame, IN: U of Notre Dame P, 1960.
Benjamin, Walter. Illuminations. Ed. Hannah Arendt. Trans. Harry Zohn. New York: Shocken, 1968.
Bhabha, Homi K. The Location of Culture. New York: Routledge, 1994.
Blaine, David. Mysterious Stranger: A Book of Magic. New York: Villard, 2002.
Bradbury, Nancy Mason. “Popular-Festive Forms and Beliefs in Robert Mannyng’s Handlyng Synne.” Farrell. 158-79.
Brody, Saul Nathaniel. “Truth and Fiction in the Nun’s Priest’s Tale.” Modern Critical Views: Geoffrey Chaucer. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea, 1985.
Caillois, Roger. Man, Play, and Games. Trans. Meyer Barash. New York: Free P of Glencoe, 1961.
Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. Trans. David Wright. New York: Oxford UP, 1985.
---. The Riverside Chaucer. Ed. Larry D. Benson. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987.
Chekhov, Anton Pavlovich. Four Plays. Trans. David Magarshack. London: Hill and Wang, 1969.
Farrell, Thomas J. “Introduction: Bakhtin, Liminality, and Medieval Literature.”Farrell. 1-14.
---, ed. Bakhtin and Medieval Voices. Gainesville: UP of Florida, 1995.
Fine, Alan Gary. Shared Fantasy: Role-Playing Games as Social Worlds. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1983.
Frasca, Gonzalo. “Chapter II: Games and Videogames.” Videogames of the Oppressed: Videogames as a Means for Critical Thinking and Debate. Thesis. Georgia Institute of Technology, 2001. 2 February 2004 <http://www.ludology.org/articles/thesis/>.
Freud, Sigmund. “Beyond The Pleasure Principle.” The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud. Ed. James Strachey, Anna Freud, and Carrie Lee Rothgeb. London: Institute of Psychoanalysis, 1959.
Frost, Joe L. Play and Playscapes. New York: Delmar, 1992.
Gadamer, Hans-Georg. Truth and Method. Trans. Joel Weinsheimer and Donald G. Marshall. New York: Crossroad, 1989.
Ganim, John M. Chaucerian Theatricality. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1990.
Goffman, Erving. Interaction Ritual: Essays on Face-to-Face Behavior. New York: Pantheon, 1982.
---. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Doubleday, 1959.
Gredler, Margaret. Designing and Evaluating Games & Simulations: A Process Approach. London: Gulf, 1994.
Huizinga, Johan. Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-element in Culture. Boston: Beacon, 1955.
Huppe, Bernard Felix. A Reading of the Canterbury Tales. New York: State U of New York P, 1964.
Hussey, S. S. Chaucer: An Introduction. New York: Methuen, 1981.
Knapp, Peggy Ann. Chaucer and the Social Contest. New York: Routledge, 1990.
Kole, Andre, and Jerry MacGregor. Mind Games. Phoenix, AZ: ACW P, 2002.
Kolve, V. A. Chaucer and the Imagery of Narrative: The First Five Canterbury Tales.London: Arnold, 1984.
Lindahl, Carl. Earnest Games: Folkloric Patterns in The Canterbury Tales. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1987.
Lyotard, Jean-Francois, and Jean-Loup Thebaud. Just Gaming. Trans. Wlad Godzich.Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1985.
McGerr, Rosemarie Potz. Chaucer’s Open Books: Resistance to Closure in Medieval Discourse. Gainesville: UP of Florida UP, 1998.
McLuhan, Marshall. Understanding Media. New York: Routledge, 2001.
Muscatine, Charles. “Order and Disorder.” Geoffrey Chaucer’s the Knight’s Tale. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea, 1988.
Olson, Glending. “Chaucer’s Idea of a Canterbury Game.” The Idea of Medieval Literature: New Essays on Chaucer and Medieval Culture in Honor of Donald R. Howard. Ed. James M. Dean and Christian K. Zacher. Newark: U of Delaware P, 1992.
Park, Robert Ezra. Race and Culture. Glencoe, IL: Free, 1950.
Pelen, Marc M. “The Escape of Chaucer’s Chauntecleer: A Brief Revaluation.” The Chaucer Review 36.4 (2002): 329-35.
Perfetti, Lisa. “Taking Laughter Seriously: The Comic and Didactic Functions of Helmbrecht.” Farrell 38-60.
Richmond, Velma Bourgeois. Geoffrey Chaucer. New York: Continuum, 1992.
Schick, Lawrence. Heroic Worlds: A History and Guide to Role-Playing Games. New York: Prometheus, 1991.
Strindberg, August. Six Plays of Strindberg. Trans. Elizabeth Sprigge. New York: Anchor, 1955.
Taylor, Andrew. “Bakhtin and the Smithfield Decretals.” Farrell 17-37.
Traversi, Derek Antona. The Canterbury Tales: A Reading. Newark: U of Delaware P, 1983.
Wilson, R. Rawdon. In Palamedes’ Shadow: Explorations in Play, Game, & Narrative Theory. Boston: Northeastern UP, 1990.
Wood, Chauncey. Chaucer and the Country of the Stars: Poetic Uses of Astrological Imagery. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1970.