Historically, entertainment has been associated with amusement. However, it has a more diverse meaning, including enjoyment, pleasure, insight and intellectual growth. It may also serve a more serious purpose, such as a ritual, ceremony or religious festival, or be satirical or political. Bates and Ferri (2010) define entertainment as any activity understood objectively that involves communication between text and audience from an external stimulus, offers pleasure, requires audience participation and takes place in a passive form.
A famous example is the Scheherazade story from the Persian professional storytelling tradition – it has inspired orchestral works by Rimsky-Korsakov, Ravel and Szymanowski; Pasolini made a film adaptation; and video games have recently been created based on this tale.
