Description
Tennis is one of the world’s most popular sports, as levels of participation and spectatorship demonstrate. Moreover, tennis has always been one of the world’s most significant sports, expressing crucial fractures of social class, gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity - both on and off court.
This is the first book to undertake a survey of the historical and socio-cultural sweep of tennis, exploring key themes from governance, development and social inclusion to national identity and the role of the media. It is presented in three parts: historical developments; culture and representations; and politics and social issues, and features contributions by leading tennis scholars from North America, Europe, Asia and Australia.
The most authoritative book published to date on the history, culture and politics of tennis, this is an essential reference for any course or program examining the history, sociology, politics or culture of sport.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction to the History and Historiography of Tennis, Part I: Historical Developments (Commercialization, Professionalization and the Creation of Tennis Celebrities; Globalization and Internationalization of Tennis), 2. From Folk Game to Elite Pastime: Tennis and its Patrons, 3. Grass Roots: The Development of Tennis in Britain, 1918–1978, 4. Coaching and Training in British Tennis: A History of Competing Ideals, 5. Golden Years and Golden Stars: International Women’s Tennis between the Wars, 6. A Transcendent Game Plan: Bill Tilden’s Rhetorical Strategy in Defying the USLTA, 7. Fred Perry and the Amateur-professional Divide in British Tennis Between the Wars, 8. Boris Becker and Steffi Graf: German tennis, Media Images and National Identity, 9. The Female Hero through the Cultural Lens: Comparing Framing of Li Na in Chinese and Western Media, 10. The World’s Game? Globalization and the Cultural Economy of Tennis, 11. Jeu de Paume, Lawn Tennis and France’s National Identity from the 1870s to the Musketeers Era, 12. Lawn Tennis in Ireland: The Untold History, 1870-1914, 13. Socio-cultural Transformations of Tennis in the Czech Republic, 14. A Brief Historical, Political and Social Analysis of Argentine Tennis, 15. Indian Tennis: Past Perfect, Present Continuous, Future Tense, 16. Tennis in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region, Part II: Culture and Representations (Gender, Race, Class, the Arts and Media), 17. Fashioning Competitive Lawn Tennis: Object, Image, and Reality in Women’s Tennis Dress 1884-1919, 18. Wimbledon Women: Elite Amateur Tennis Players in the Mid-Twentieth Century, 19. Beyond the "Kournikova Phenomenon": Race and Beauty in a ‘Colorblind’ Culture, 20. Making Work out of Play: The Troubling Gender Performances of Bill Tilden, 21. Your Racquet Should Do the Talking: Masculinity and Top - Class Tennis, 1930s to the Early Twenty First Century, 22. "You’ve Come a Long Way Baby" but When Will You Get to Deuce? The Media (Re)presentation of Women‘s Tennis in the Post Open Era, 23. Veiled Hyper-Sexualization: Deciphering Strong is Beautiful as Collective Identity in the WTA’s Global Ad Campaign, 24. Warriors of the Court: Richard "Pancho" González, Rosie Casals and the History of U.S. Latino/as in Tennis, 25. Historical Changes in Playing Styles and Behavioural Etiquette in Tennis: Reflecting Broader Shifts in Social Class and Gender Relations, 26. The Seductions of Modern Tennis: Technical Invention, Social Practice, Literary Discourse, 27. Understanding Competitive Tennis through Literature and the Visual Arts: Society, Celebrity and Aesthetics, 28. The Literature of Tennis, 29. International Tennis Art, 30. Tennis and the Media: A History of Shifting Attitudes toward Tennis Journalism and Broadcasting, 31. Exploring an Online Tennis Community, 32. Tennis & Social Media, Part III: Politics and Social Issues (Governance, Nationalism and Identity: Race, Gender, Class and Disability), 33. Tennis Governance: A History of Political Power Struggles, 34. Defending the Grand Slam: Government Intervention, Urban Renewal and Keeping the Australian Open, 35. Tennis and the Olympics: An Historical Examination of their On-Off Relationship since 1896, 36. The Wimbledon Effect: The Tennis Championships as Changing National Symbol, 37. Andy Murray and the Borders of National Identities: (Re)Claiming a Tennis Champion, 38. Racial Politics in the History of American Tennis, 39. Arthur Ashe: Politics, Racism and Tennis, 40. The Original 9: The Social Movement That Created Women’s Professional Tennis, 1968-1973, 41. Giving All Women the Chance: The Battle of the Sexes in Popular Culture, 42. Break Point: Renée Richards and the Significance of Sex and Gender in Women’s Tennis, 43. Venus and Serena are "Doing It" for Themselves: Theorizing Sporting Celebrity, Marxism and Black Feminism for the Hip-Hop Generation, 44. Wheelchair Tennis: Historical Development and Narratives of Play, 45. A History of Social Exclusion in British Tennis: From Grass Roots to the Elite Level
