Re-viewing the woman as fan: an examination of the narrative framing of the women in cinematic adaptations of Nick Hornby's fever pitch

Kasey Symons; Lee McGowan

doi:10.1080/17430437.2022.2125804

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Re-viewing the woman as fan: an examination of the narrative framing of the women in cinematic adaptations of Nick Hornby's fever pitch

Journal article

Peer reviewed

Re-viewing the woman as fan: an examination of the narrative framing of the women in cinematic adaptations of Nick Hornby's fever pitch

Kasey Symons and Lee McGowan

Sport in Society, Vol.26(7), pp.1265-1279

2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2022.2125804

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Abstract

women fans

football fandom

football fiction

football films

Nick Hornby

Fever Pitch

Nick Hornby’s memoir, Fever Pitch (1992) is pivotal in deepening our understanding of the experience of the western male football (soccer) fan and has received proportionate academic scrutiny. In contrast, its two film adaptations have received very little. Significantly, these adaptations, one football (1997 UK), one baseball (2005 US), foreground a heterosexual romantic relationship and weight the success of this relationship with a woman whose character is transformed from uninitiated to deeply connected, ‘authentic’ fan. Yet, this transformative experience can be seen to undermine, or delegitimize, the fandom of women in sports domains. Where studies of women as fans in film and literature are limited and studies of the women in the central roles in Hornby’s sports’ texts even more so, this paper seeks to situate women as ‘real fans’ in fictional narratives alongside those in other emergent forms of contemporary sporting fandom.

Details

Title: Re-viewing the woman as fan: an examination of the narrative framing of the women in cinematic adaptations of Nick Hornby's fever pitch
Authors: Kasey Symons (Corresponding Author) - Swinburne University of Technology
Lee McGowan (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Business and Creative Industries
Publication details: Sport in Society, Vol.26(7), pp.1265-1279
Publisher: Routledge
DOI: 10.1080/17430437.2022.2125804
ISSN: 1743-0445
Organisation Unit: School of Business and Creative Industries; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; Australian Centre for Pacific Islands Research
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99677497202621
Output Type: Journal article

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Collaboration types: Domestic collaboration
Web Of Science research areas: Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism; Sociology

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