[Commlist] CfP Fighting Boxing's Narratives

PUBLIC / CYHOEDDUS



We would like to invite abstracts for chapters to be included in our 
edited collection,*/Fighting Boxing’s Narratives/*. We intend to submit 
the proposal to Routledge in July 2021. The editors at Routledge have 
expressed initial interest in the project. We welcome abstracts from any 
disciplinary background. We actively encourage submissions from 
contributors from the Global South. *______*

__ __

*Abstracts of 300-500 words*should be submitted by*June 11, 2021,*to 
Solomon Lennox at:(solomon.lennox /at/ northumbria.ac.uk) 
<mailto:(solomon.lennox /at/ northumbria.ac.uk)>____

__ __

Further information is outlined below. Please contact either of the 
editors for informal enquiries:____

__ __

Sarah Crews (University of South Wales, Wales, 
UK):(sarah.crews2 /at/ southwales.ac.uk) <mailto:(sarah.crews2 /at/ southwales.ac.uk)>____

Solomon Lennox (Northumbria University, 
UK):(solomon.lennox /at/ northumbria.ac.uk) 
<mailto:(solomon.lennox /at/ northumbria.ac.uk)>____

__ __

*_Fighting Boxing’s Narratives_____*

*______*

Boxing is understood through a set of pervasive and powerful narratives 
that are insufficiently challenged in popular and academic encounters 
with the sport. This volume invites a multidisciplinary approach to 
respond to this dilemma. Analysing and fighting the narratives through 
which the sport of boxing is understood is crucial on account of the 
relationship between these stories and the formation of an individual’s 
narrative identity. In 1992, ethnographer, Loïc Wacquant, outlined the 
narrative misconceptions associated with boxing, wherein boxers are 
understood as:____

rugged, near-illiterate young/men/who, raised in broken homes and 
deprivation, manage single-handedly to elevate themselves from the 
gutter to fame and fortune, parlaying their anger at the world and 
sadomasochistic craving for violence into million-dollar purses, save 
for those who, ruthlessly exploited by callous managers and promoters 
alike, end up on the dole with broken bones and hearts. (Wacquant 1992, 
p. 222)____


Almost three decades later, Crews and Lennox (2020) argued that these 
misconceptions remain and it is through the lens of these narrative 
myths that boxing is understood in the public press and scholarly 
studies. The narrative myths supporting boxing matter because they shape 
the types of narrative identities available to those who engage with 
boxing. They determine the value and stigma associated with the sport 
and its participants, and importantly, determine who is represented in 
the stories told about boxing, in the identity of/the boxer/. These 
narrative myths not only control the types of narrative identities 
available to boxers but also perform structural mechanisms determining 
which types of bodies can identify as a boxer. The pool of narratives 
that support the sport, the narrative resources of boxing, are many, but 
limited and limiting. This volume interrogates the established narrative 
resources of boxing in a bid to present a more varied set of resources 
through which the sport is understood. As ethnographer John Sugden 
argues, the ‘role of “boxer” [is] absolutely central to a fighter’s 
sense of who/he/is and the ring the main stage for/his/character 
display’ (Sugden 1996, p. 53/emphasis added/). Therefore, increasing the 
pool of stories and perspectives on boxing is important, because it 
increases the visibility of what it means to/be/a boxer and for whom 
this identity is available, it also increases the resources through 
which variants of this identity can be performed.____

__ __

We ask contributors to this collection to critically examine the 
narrative misconceptions and tropes of boxing (as outlined by Wacquant 
above and in Crews and Lennox 2020), to expand the narrative resources 
of the sport by drawing upon diverse disciplinary perspectives on the 
sport. We invite multidisciplinary approaches where boxing is considered 
in the broadest sense. This may include, but is not limited to:____

__ __

  * The sport of boxing (amateur or professional)____
  * Contemporary boxing____
  * Boxing Futures____
  * The cultural history of boxing____
  * Representations of boxing:____
      o On stage____
      o On-screen____
      o In performance art____
      o In art more broadly____
      o In works of fiction____
  * The sociology of boxing____
  * Boxing and medicine____
  * Boxing and technology____
  * Boxing and social media____
  * Boxing and the law____
  * Boxing in print____

__ __

__ __

*_Indicative Questions_*

*_
_*

How are structures of oppression upheld or challenged through fictitious 
representations of boxing?____

__ __

What are the tensions between the narrative misconceptions of the sport 
and the embodied experience of its participants (specifically 
intersectional embodied experiences)?____

__ __

To what extent does the imprint of the ideologies of modernity projects 
and development theory haunt the narrative resources of boxing?____

__ __

How does existing scholarship on boxing treat and understand boxers and 
boxing bodies on account of the narrative misconceptions?____

__ __

How does the popular press uphold or challenge narrative myths?____

__ __

To what extent does engaging with/alternative/histories of boxers/boxing 
allow us to challenge the dominant narratives that are perpetuated in 
popular and scholarly versions of the sport?____

__ __

In what ways does social media provide space for alternate and diverse 
narrative resources to be performed?____

__ __

What are the future possibilities for boxing?____

__ __

*_Timeframes_____*

__ __

If successful, we will work towards the following deadlines:____

____

*February 25, 2022,*completed chapters to be submitted for peer review.____

*May 20, 2022,*Edits and comments returned to authors.____

*August 19, 2022,*Final revisions back from authors.____

*February 2023,*target publication date.____

---------------
The COMMLIST
---------------
This mailing list is a free service offered by Nico Carpentier. Please use it responsibly and wisely.
--
To subscribe or unsubscribe, please visit http://commlist.org/
--
Before sending a posting request, please always read the guidelines at http://commlist.org/
--
To contact the mailing list manager:
Email: (nico.carpentier /at/ vub.ac.be)
URL: http://nicocarpentier.net
---------------