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Book SynopsisThe Burden of Over-representation artfully explores three curious racial moments in sport: Jackie Robinson's expletive at a Dodgers spring training game; the transformation of a formality into an event at the end of the 1995 rugby World Cup in South Africa; and a spectral moment at the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Grant Farred examines the connotations at play in these moments through the lenses of race, politics, memory, inheritance and conciliation, deploying a surprising cast of figures in Western thought, ranging from Jacques Derrida and Friedrich Nietzsche to Judith Butler, William Shakespeare, and Jesus-the-Christ. Farred makes connection and creates meaning through the forces at play and the representational burdens of team, country and race. Farred considers Robinson's profane comments at black Dodgers fans, a post-match exchange of thank yous on the rugby pitch between white South African captain François Pienaar and Nelson Mandela, and being haunted by the ghost of Derrida on the o
Trade Review“Grant Farred has long been our ‘prose laureate’ at the intersection of sports, philosophy, and politics. With The Burden of Over-representation, he outdoes himself: looking at critical, forgotten moments in our sports history with a lens utterly original and entirely his own.”—Dave Zirin, Sports Editor, The Nation magazine
“In binding together his abiding passions—literary theory, sport, and Africa (and its diaspora)—and spurring them to illuminate one another, Grant Farred delivers his best work yet. Three extraordinary moments in sport in three parts of the globe are the texts on which he unleashes his incandescent mind, unmatched political acumen, and glorious way with words. The Burden of Over-representation is also an exceptional contribution to the study of racial significations in this mad species of ours.”—Wendy Brown, Class of 1936 First Chair, University of California, Berkeley
