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A collection of essays analyzing Knowles's classic work, including a chronology of his works and life.
This compelling volume explores the complexities of adolescent friendship in John Knowles's A Separate Place. Essays discuss the life of John Knowles, the role of personal experience in fiction, how the novel explores the roots of war, as well as contemporary perspectives on how war in Afghanistan is increasing bullying among children, and how sports bring joy despite the realities of war.
An Unholy Alliance offers a dissenting view to the claim by a growing number of scholars that Sports are a new religion. The last few years have seen a spate of books that might be classified by a genre called "Sports Apologetics," that is, arguments defending or celebrating in one way or another the familiar and ongoing alliance in America between sports and religion. Recently, claims have been made by scholars that sports are an authentic religion in and of themselves. They make this startling assertion not by showing connections with the teachings of Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed, or Moses, but by parallels between the rites of modern games and those of preliterate man that were "religious" in nature because they were designed to propitiate powers and to ward off evil for the tribes employing them. In this evocative book, Higgs and Braswell suggest that while sports may often be good things, they are not inherently divine. They do not focus on wide-spread abuse in sports as evidence for their counterargument. Rather, they question the use of mythological parallels from prehistory as justification for viewing sports as a religion.
This Companion brings together leading scholars to examine the significant traditions, genres, and themes of civil rights literature.
One of football's most innovative motivators is highlighted in this balanced account--"a solid portrait of one of football's most solid figures" ("The New York Times Book Review"). 19 halftones.
The sports film has become one of commercial cinema's most recognizable genres. From classic boxing films such as Raging Bull (1980) to soccer-themed box-office successes like Bend it Like Beckham (2002), the sports film stands at the interface of two of our most important cultural forms. This book examines the social, historical and ideological significance of representations of sport in film internationally, an essential guide for all students and enthusiasts of sport, film, media and culture. Sport and Film traces the history of the sports film, from the beginnings of cinema in the 1890s, its consolidation as a distinct fiction genre in the mid 1920s in Hollywood films such as Harold Lloy...
Publisher's description: Since the earliest days of the silent era, American filmmakers have been drawn to the visual spectacles of sports and their compelling narratives of conflict, triumph, and individual achievement. In Contesting Identities Aaron Baker examines how these cinematic representations of sports and athletes have evolved over time--from The Pinch Hitter and Buster Keaton's College to White Men Can't Jump, Jerry Maguire, and Girlfight. He focuses on how identities have been constructed and transcended in American society since the early twentieth century. Whether depicting team or individual sports, these films return to that most American of themes, the master narrative of se...
Clair Bee (1896-1983) was a hugely successful basketball coach at Rider College and Long Island University with a 412 and 87 record before his career was derailed in 1951 by a point-shaving scandal. In the trial that sent his star player, Sherman White, to prison, the judge excoriated Bee for creating a morally lax culture that contributed to his players' involvement with gambling. To a certain extent, Bee agreed with the judge's scolding, concluding that coaches, himself included, had become so driven to succeed on the court that they had lost sight of the educational role sports should play. His coaching career effectively over, Bee launched an effort to reform the ills he saw in college s...
The first in-depth study of Kinsella's fiction since 1987, this book offers a unique and updated analysis. Utilizing a variety of approaches and the hermeneutical lenses of race, gender, class, religion, sexuality and post colonialism, this comprehensive text covers the five novels and numerous short stories featuring baseball. Topics include a broad history of both juvenile and adult baseball fiction, an overview of how the genre has grown since the early 1950s, and the various forms of national, community and individual identity that have formed around the sport. The bibliography offers a balance of primary baseball fiction and secondary scholarship, demonstrating the numerous approaches to the game and its literature.
This book offers a study of the portrayal of America in selected social and political plays of the 1930s and a scrutiny of the intellectual response of the playwrights to the American way of life in the light of socio-political and economic issues in that decade.