Description
Book SynopsisThis is the first book in English to closely examine the life of Diego Maradona from socio-cultural perspectives, exploring how his status as an icon, a popular sporting hero, and a political figurehead has been culturally constructed, reproduced, and manipulated.
The volume looks at representations of Maradona across a wide variety of media, including literature, cinema, popular music, printed and online press, and radio, and in different countries around the world, to cast new light on topics such as the instrumentality of sporting heroes and the links among sport, nationalism, and ideology. It shows how the life of Maradona from his origins in the barrio through to his rise to god-like status in Naples and as a postcolonial symbol of courage and resistance against imperial powers across the global south, alongside scandal and his fall from grace powerfully illustrates themes such as the dynamics of gender, justice, and affect that underpin the study of sport, cultu
Trade Review
'This text offers much to the academic specialist, the armchair sports watcher and those also interested in the broader issue of fandom and celebrity. With especially strong chapters on the Spanish and Italian dimension of Maradona’s career by Garcia Cames and Russo as well as Boyle on Maradona and Britain, the work is destined to have a wide and long-lasting appeal. Brescia and Paz have also opened an avenue of investigation and analysis that could prove valuable in the assessment of other major historical sporting figures most notably Shane Warne, Mohammed Ali, Arthur Ashe and Colin Kaepernick, with respect to gaining a deeper insight into wider manifestations of popular culture and the growing impact of sport in moulding a key component of evolving national identity, socio-political priority and nation-building.'
- Russell Holden, In the Zone Sport and Politics Consultancy
Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Cultural Significance of Maradona, Part I: Global Maradona, 1. Maradona and Argentina: Four Takes, 2. Maradona and Spain: Mythologies of the Hero Narrative, 3. Maradona and Italy: The Rise and Fall of the Man on His Own, 4. Maradona and Mexico: The Ecstasy and the Agony, 5. Maradona and Britain: An Unforgettable Affair, Part II: Representing Maradona, 6. Maradona and Literature: God Is Only Human, 7. Maradona and Cinema: Biopic, Documentary, Art Film, 8. Maradona and Music: Soundscapes and Echoes of the Maradonian Song, Part III: Reading and Writing Maradona, 9. Spectres of Maradona: Chronicle/Fiction/Autobiography/Film, 10. The Maradona Story: Tropes in Biography and Autobiography, 11. Argentinian Feminisms in the Light (and Shadow) of Maradona, 12. Deifying Diego: The Church of Maradona and Beyond, 13. Writing Maradona, One and All, God, the Era, and the Epic, Language and Tears, Saint Diego Maradona?, M and M, to See or Not to See, Number Ten in Ten, Children of Maradona
