Football in Fiction: A History (Critical Research in Football)

__Football in Fiction__ represents the most comprehensive historical mapping and analysis of novels related to association football (soccer). It offers a theoretically informed field guide, a scholarly cartography of football fiction’s uncertain – and until now – only partially explored terrain. Combining an extensive search for texts with up-to-date academic research, journals, surveys, catalogues, and reviews the book demonstrates a topographic perspective of the field – one that captures and establishes its breadth, depth, and distinctive identity. The book uses and adapts two distinct reading models of abstraction, in conjunction with closer textual analyses. Together they assist in realising a set of demonstrable conventions, outline a taxonomy of fictive types, establish the genre’s current state of play, and advance the football novel as a form with its own literary history and traditions. This book is a valuable resource for those studying and researching in the areas of the social and cultural aspects of football, sports fiction, sports writing, creative writing, and literary and genre studies. Furthermore, related industry professionals will find this a fascinating read, particularly football writers, fans of the sport, and those interested in sports history and cultural phenomena. Football in Fiction represents the most comprehensive historical mapping and analysis of novels related to association football (soccer). It offers a theoretically informed field guide, a scholarly cartography of football fiction’s uncertain, and – until now – only partially explored terrain. Combining an extensive search for texts with up-to-date academic research, journals, surveys, catalogues, and reviews, the book demonstrates a topographic perspective of the field – one that captures and establishes its breadth, depth, and distinctive identity. The book uses and adapts two distinct reading models of abstraction, in conjunction with closer textual analyses. Together they assist in realising a set of demonstrable conventions, outline a taxonomy of fictive types, establish the genre’s current state of play, and advance the football novel as a form with its own literary history and traditions. This book is a valuable resource for those studying and researching in the areas of the social and cultural aspects of football, sports fiction, sports writing, creative writing, and literary and genre studies. Furthermore, related industry professionals will find this a fascinating read, particularly football writers, fans of the sport, and those interested in sports history and cultural phenomena. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Series Page 3 Title 4 Copyright 5 Dedication 6 Contents 8 List of figures 9 Acknowledgements 10 Introduction: a long ball game 12 1 Before Fever Pitch: a true history of football fiction 26 2 Current form: the contemporary landscape of football fiction 54 3 Line-markings: the topography of football fiction 84 4 ‘Rules for the simplest game’: conventions of the football fiction genre 114 5 Two halves: differentiation between adult and young adult football fiction 129 Play the whistle!’: a conclusion of sorts 154 They think it’s all oeuvre . . . a catalogue of football fiction 159 Index 178 "Football in Fiction represents the most comprehensive historical mapping and analysis of novels related to association football (soccer). It offers a theoretically informed field guide, a scholarly cartography of football fiction's uncertain - and until now - only partially explored terrain. Combining an extensive search for texts with up-to-date academic research, journals, surveys, catalogues, and reviews the book demonstrates a topographic perspective of the field - one that captures and establishes its breadth, depth, and distinctive identity. The book uses and adapts two distinct reading models of abstraction, in conjunction with closer textual analyses. Together they assist in realising a set of demonstrable conventions, outline a taxonomy of fictive types, establish the genre's current state of play, and advance the football novel as a form with its own literary history and traditions. This book is a valuable resource for those studying and researching in the areas of the social and cultural aspects of football, sports fiction, sports writing, creative writing, and literary and genre studies. Furthermore, related industry professionals will find this a fascinating read, particularly football writers, fans of the sport, and those interested in sports history and cultural phenomena."-- Provided by publisher