Since the earliest days of the silent era, American filmmakers have been drawn to the visual spectacle 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 ...
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Since the earliest days of the silent era, American filmmakers have been drawn to the visual spectacle 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 self-reliance. Baker shows that even as sports films tackle socially constructed identities like class, race, ethnicity, sexuality, and gender, they ultimately underscore transcendence of these identities through self-reliance.Looking at films from almost every sporting genre - with a particular focus on movies about boxing, baseball, basketball, and football - "Contesting Identities" maps the complex cultural landscape depicted in American sports films and the ways in which stories about 'subaltern' groups winning acceptance by the mainstream majority can serve to reinforce the values of that majority. In addition to discussing the genre's recurring dramatic tropes, from the populist prizefighter to the hot-headed rebel to the 'manly' female athlete, Baker also looks at the social and cinematic impacts of real-life sports figures from Jackie Robinson and Babe Didrikson Zaharias to Muhammad Ali and Michael Jordan.'A must-read for cinephiles and sports fans alike, "Contesting Identites" is a knock-out. Aaron Baker cogently combines previous work on identities, sports, and media and moves discussion to new levels. His analysis of how race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and class are represented in feature sports films are consistently thought-provoking and intriguing' - Chris Holmlund, author of "Impossible Bodies: Femininity and Masculinity" at the Movies.
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Seller's Description:
Fine in Fine jacket. Film Book is in excellent condition, as new. Binding is solid and square, covers have sharp corners, exterior shows no blemishes, text/interior is clean and free of marking of any kind. Dust jacket shows the slightest signs of shelf wear only, no tears, now wrapped in clear protective cover. 162 pages with a few b&w illustrations, contents include: From second string to solo star: Hollywood and the black athlete, From he got game to we got next: gender in American sports films, A lef/right combination: class and American boxing films.
