"""Been there, did that"": Contemporary sport performances"

Four sporting milieus, The American Gladiators, the World Wrestling Federation, the 1992 Super Bowl, and the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain are examined as cultural performances in this dissertation. Participant-observation was used, and ethnographies for each temporal site were produced. Sport-art relationships, especially drawing upon postmodern discourse, are examined. Additionally, a proposal for a change in the master sport narrative (e.g., as used in sport studies and popular culture), from that of sport-as-drama to that of sport-as-avant-garde, was advanced. In the ethnographies of the Super Bowl and the Summer Olympics, the subject matter is mirrored in the writing of the text. Finally, sport travel (and collecting and commoditization) as a necessary requisite for contemporary sport experience is noted and examined.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Kinesiology

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2014

Author dc:creator

• Rinehart, Robert Edward

Contributors dc:contributor

• Slowikowski, Synthia S.

• Health Sciences, Recreation

Identifier

(UMI)AAI9329147

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/72498