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Whether it is our love of chance and vicarious thrill, our need to release anxiety and aggression, or our appreciation of the arc traced by a ball at a crucial moment – sports draw us in.
The Allure of Sports in Western Culture contributes to contemporary debates about the attraction of sports in the West by providing a historical grounding, as well as theoretical perspectives and contextualization. Bringing together the work of literary theorists, historians, and athletes, the volume’s dual emphasis allows us to better understand the historical and ideological reasons for the changing nature of sports’ allure from Ancient Greece and Rome to the modern Olympics. The findings show that allure is shaped by larger forces such as poverty, wealth, and status; changing moral standards; and political and cultural indoctrination. On the other hand, personal and psychological factors play an equally important, if less tangible role: our love for scandal, the seduction of deception and violence, and the physiological intoxication of watching and participating in sports keep us hooked. At the heart of the volume lies the tension between our love of sports and our knowledge of their only barely hidden cruelties, exploitations, and manipulations.
List of contents
Acknowledgments
Part I: Introduction
Introduction: The Allure of Sports
John Zilcosky Part II: Theoretical Perspectives
1. Sports/Allure
Grant Farred 2. "Allure" Constrained by "Ethics"? How Athletic Events Have Engaged Their Spectators
Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht Part III: The Ancient World
3. The Fading Allure of Greek Athletics
Sophie Remijsen 4. Wrestling, or the Art of Disentangling Bodies
John Zilcosky 5. The Allure and Ethics of Ancient Aesthetics: Hellenism in the Modern Olympic Movement
Charles Stocking Part IV: Modern Europe
6. Attractive or Repugnant? Foot Races in Eighteenth-Century Germany and Britain
Rebekka Von Mallinckrodt 7. A Well-Trained Community: Gymnastics for the German Nation
Wolf Kittler 8. Importing a German
Kampfsport: The Reception and Practice of Japanese Martial Arts in Interwar Germany
Sarah Panzer 9. The Ethics and Allure of the Foul in Football
Annette Vowinckel Part V: Coda
10. Swimming
Karin Helmstaedt Contributors
Index
About the author
Edited by John Zilcosky and Marlo A. Burks
Summary
Sports are the most popular spectator events in the history of the world. This volume demonstrates how sports shape societies and individuals. The essays offer critical new insights and historical case studies from historians, theorists, literature scholars, and athletes.
