Sporting Rhetoric

Book excerpt: Millions of people around the world are engaged in sports and games. This volume studies the ways in which engagement is performed in popular culture. We do not just watch football - we perform by being a fan. NBA players do not simply run up and down the court. Instead, on and off the court they perform certain roles, many informed by hip hop culture. Such performances are rhetorical: they manage attitudes, behaviors, and predispositions, influencing the distribution of power. Competitive hot dog eaters, bull riding, and Mexican wrestlers are some of the other sports and games covered by the contributors. The book is unique in bringing together the three themes of sports and games, performance, and the rhetoric of popular culture, and is relevant for both scholarly use and classroom adoption in courses ranging from sport and society, rhetoric, composition, persuasion and argument, and popular culture.