The theatricality of sport and the issue of ideology

Abstract

Through the study of Richard Gruneau and Gunter Gebauer’s respective works, this article examines the social significance and theoretical implications of sport’s capacity to represent social life in a theatrical manner. The drama-like images and representations sporting practices produce, institutions codify, and television programs enhance is considered in relation to ideology’s integrative, legitimating, and distorting functions (Ricoeur). Acknowledging the filiations of ‘theatre’ with ‘theory’ – both words stand for ‘to contemplate, to see, to observe’ – this study considers theatricality as a valuable theoretical notion that enables a synthetic and reflexive understanding of athletic practices’ bodily dimension, symbolic representations, and institutional determinants.

Keywords:

• sport
• theatricality
• ideology
• theory
• bodily movements
• institutions
• symbolic representations
• television and media coverage

Notes

1. Ricoeur’s understanding of the ideological phenomena, it should be noted, is a synthesis of his reading of the works of Gilford Geertz (social integration), Max Weber (institutional legitimization), and Karl Marx (distortion).

2. As Anderson asserts, quoting Hegel, the reading of the newspaper becomes, in this context, a substitute for morning prayers (Anderson 1991 [1983], 35).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jean-François Morissette

Université du Québec à Montréal, Sociology, 1255, rue Saint-Denis, Montréal, Quebec, H2X 3R9 Canada.

University of Ottawa, School of Human Kinetics, 75 Laurier Ave East, Ottawa, Ontario, K1 N 6N5 Canada. Email: [email protected]