106-469 The Athlete's Body as Sign and Text

Normally admission to the Postgraduate Diploma or honours in English or cultural studies.

This subject asks students to consider the athletic/sportive body as a locus for evolving discourses and practices of race, aesthetics, ethics, gender, politics and consumption. Selected contemporary and historical sportspeople, and sporting events, will be analysed. Specific areas of interest may include fascism, Olympism, Cold War politics, gender, race, international relations, and the politics of consumption. Attention will be given to the manner in which the sporting image has been mediated by mass communications. This will include a consideration of journalism and literary writing, the early circulation of silent movies of major sporting events, the diffusion of images through contemporary global media and the contemporary cult of the sporting celebrity. Perspectives and theorisations generated by sports practitioners, journalists, artists, scholars working in contemporary sports cultural studies and sports history will be utilised.

• have the ability to critically analyse and discuss a wide range of research materials through participation in class discussions, the reading of critical essays and the writing of a class paper and an extended scholarly essay;

• have the ability to enhance their understanding and appreciation of sport and physicality in a manner which respects the varied knowledges of athletes, sports journalists, artists and scholars;

• have the ability to conduct effective archival research and evaluate and process a wide range of source material;

• have the capacity for independent and targeted research as a result of preparing a class presentation and writing a scholarly essay;

• have the confidence to present and defend ideas and propositions as a result of seminar participation and presentation;

• have the capacity for creative thinking through participation in discussions and the writing of essays that apply critical and theoretical ideas to the reading and interpretation of cultural signs;

• have the capacity for lucid and logical argument as a result of careful essay planning and writing;

• be competent in the use of library and other information sources such as on line websites and search engines through the researching and writing of essays that require the use of these resources;

• have the ability to organise oneself and manage one's time efficiently and effectively through the successful completion of a class paper and a written essay by the due date.

Seminar participation and paper-presentation equivalent to 1000 words 10% (presented during the semester) and an essay of 4000 words 90% (due at the end of semester).

A subject reader will be available from the University Bookshop.