Sport, Rhetoric, and Political Struggle

The essays in Sport, Rhetoric, and Political Struggle contextualize sport and political struggle, examine the mobilization of resistance in sporting contexts, identify ongoing stigmas that present limitations in and around sport, and attend to prevailing ideological features that provoke questions for future research.

Sport, Rhetoric, and Political Struggle addresses a needed next step for advancing sport as a site of inquiry in rhetorical studies. The book claims that sport is central to contemporary antagonisms over, for example, gender and sexual binarism, queer visibilities, race and labor relations, public health, domestic violence, global institutional corruption, and posthuman body politics. The authors' attention to such antagonisms entails a dual focus: they argue (1) that sport does not function in isolation and that, moreover, relations of power take particular shape within, through, and around sport; and (2) that rhetorical studies of sport are not merely "about sport," but instead are integral to larger theoretical and ethical concerns that animate the discipline. The essays collected in this book contextualize sport and political struggle, examine the mobilization of resistance in sporting contexts, identify ongoing stigmas that present limitations in and around sport, and attend to prevailing ideological features that provoke questions for future research. In short, the authors demonstrate how and why sport is not only important, but how it is productive, how it offers understandings of practices or social formations or economies that scholars cannot get in quite the same way elsewhere.

Autorentext

Daniel A. Grano (Ph.D., Louisiana State University) is Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He is the author of The Eternal Present of Sport. Michael L. Butterworth (Ph.D., Indiana University) is Director of the Center for Sports Communication & Media and Professor in the Department of Communication Studies in the Moody College of Communication at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of Baseball and Rhetorics of Purity, co-author of Communication and Sport, and editor of Sport and Militarism.

Klappentext

Sport, Rhetoric, and Political Struggle addresses a needed next step for advancing sport as a site of inquiry in rhetorical studies. The book claims that sport is central to contemporary antagonisms over, for example, gender and sexual binarism, queer visibilities, race and labor relations, public health, domestic violence, global institutional corruption, and posthuman body politics. The authors' attention to such antagonisms entails a dual focus: they argue (1) that sport does not function in isolation and that, moreover, relations of power take particular shape within, through, and around sport; and (2) that rhetorical studies of sport are not merely "about sport," but instead are integral to larger theoretical and ethical concerns that animate the discipline. The essays collected in this book contextualize sport and political struggle, examine the mobilization of resistance in sporting contexts, identify ongoing stigmas that present limitations in and around sport, and attend to prevailing ideological features that provoke questions for future research. In short, the authors demonstrate how and why sport is not only important, but how it is productive, how it offers understandings of practices or social formations or economies that scholars cannot get in quite the same way elsewhere.

Inhalt

Acknowledgments Contributors Daniel A. Grano/Michael L. Butterworth: Rhetoric, Sport, and the Political: An Introduction Abraham I. Khan: Curt Flood, Confrontational Rhetoric, and the Radical's Constellation Katherine L. Lavelle: "Change Starts with Us": Intersectionality and Citizenship in the 2016 WNBA Karen L. Hartman: The New Rhetorical Space for Political Activism Jeffrey A. Bennett: Diving into the Past: Greg Louganis, Queer Memory, and the Politics of HIV Management Lisa M. Corrigan: Touching Ali: Rhetorical Intimacy and Black Masculinity Mike Milford: Spirits in the Material World: The Rhetoric of the Iroquois Nationals Daniel C. Brouwer/Katrina N. Hanna: (Re)Articulations of Race, Sexuality, and Gender in U.S. Football: Investigating Tyrann Mathieu as Honey Badger Anna M. Young: Richard Sherman's Rhetorical Witnessing James L. Cherney/Kurt Lindemann: Ableism and Paralympic Politics: Media Stereotypes and the Rhetoric of Disability Sport Meredith M. Bagley: Athletes and Assemblage: Political Struggle at the ESPYs Raymond I. Schuck "I'd Just Like to Let Everybody Know": Pete Harnisch on the Disabled List and the Politics of Mental Health Barry Brummett: When Sport Facilitates Saying the Unsayable at the Boundaries of Race and Sexuality: Jason Collins and Michael Sam Thomas P. Oates/Kyle W. Kusz: My Whole Life Is about Winning": The Trump Brand and the Political/Commercial Uses of Sport Index.