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ENGL151-12, First Year Writing Seminar: Sports and Society, Spring 2013
Corson, Keith
Corson, Keith
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English, Department of, Syllabus, Academic departments, Text, 2012 Spring
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Abstract
Few enterprises are as prone to cliché as professional sports, where postgame interviews largely function as exercises in banality. (Is it really possible to give 110% or to do anything other than play one game at a time?) One of the most persistent clichés regarding professional athletes is that they are “lucky enough to get paid to play a child’s game.” Problematic on a number of levels, this understanding tends to obscure the fact that sports have been responsible for transforming everything from mass media and fashion to academia and urban development. This course will move beyond simplistic rhetoric by critically engaging the contradictions and complexities of our cultural engagement with amateur and professional athletics. Locating a growing divide between spectator and participant, the writing exercises in this course will challenge students to think critically about the ways in which social values are articulated through the fan’s gaze. Using a diverse set of readings as a point of entry we will explore aspects of race, gender, class, nation, labor, and the business of sports.
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This syllabus was submitted to the Office of Academic Affairs by the course instructor. Uploaded by Archives RSA Josephine Hill.