Sport and the Spirit of Play in American Fiction: Hawthorne to Faulkner

by Christian Messenger

Overview

In this comprehensive and insightful study, Christian K. Messenger contends that American writers have always created characters at play in the sure knowledge that to be active in sport in America is to be in touch with its people, their traditions, and their fantasy lives.

This is the first inclusive critical study of sport in American fiction with chapters on individual authors such as Hawthorne, Lardner, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Faulkner, as well as studies of sport in the literature of the frontier and in boys' formula fiction. A work of literary criticism, Sport and the Spirit of Play in American Fiction also draws on the cultural history of American sport and leisure and on a century of American literature.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231516617
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	05/31/1983
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	369
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Christian K. Messenger is assistant professor of English at the University of Illinois.

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction
Play, Game, Sport
Models of Sports Heroism
Part I: Play, Game, Sport: Classic American Literature
1. Hawthorne: The Play Spirit
2. Sport and Society
Part II: The Popular Sports Hero
3. Sport and the Frontier
4. Organized Sport and Its Reporters
5. Lardner: The Popular Sports Hero
Part III: The School Sports Hero
6. The Incarnation of the College Athletic Hero
7. The Boys' School Sports Story
8. Fitzgerald: The School Sports Hero
9. The School Sports Hero as Satiric Emblem: Hemingway and Faulkner
Part IV: The Modern Ritual Sports Hero
10. Hemingway: Exemplary Heroism and Heroic Witnessing
11. Faulkner: The Play Spirit
12. Sports Approaches the Sacred: Hemingway and Faulkner
Conclusion
Notes
Index

Editorial Reviews

This is a solid book, well conceived, well executed, and a contribution of more than passing value to the field of cultural and literary history.

American Literature

The most significant and comprehensive book to date about play, game, and sport in American literature and culture. Solidly grounded in intellectual and social histor, this book analyzes the play spirit while discussing the background and 20th century manifestations of these types: the popular sports hero, the school sports hero, and the modern ritual sports hero.

CHOICE