A Sport, A Tradition, A Religion, A Joke: The Need for a Poetics of In-ring Storytelling and a Reclamation of Professional Wrestling as a Global Art

Authors

  • Kit MacFarlane, The University of South Australia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31436/asiatic.v6i2.265

Abstract

Though professional wrestling offers a variety of unique and highly stylised in-ring dramas, the actual process of this dramatic construction is frequently overlooked, misunderstood, or undervalued. This paper questions the seeming uniformity of much Western cultural analysis of professional wrestling and proposes a specific engagement with the poetics of in-ring dramatic construction – rather than an exclusive focus on the surrounding spectacle of the wrestling show itself – to appropriately contextualise professional wrestling beyond the rigid constraints of monopolistic and monolithic promotions. With a focus on poetics in line with David Bordwell's “poetics of cinema,†and drawing on a number of wrestlers’ descriptions of their own artistic processes, professional wrestling emerges as a unique and multi-faceted dramatic construction and as a global art-form that continually recreates itself through reflexive international and inter-cultural influences.

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Author Biography

Kit MacFarlane, The University of South Australia

Dr Kit MacFarlane is a writer on popular culture and lecturer in film and media at the University of South Australia

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How to Cite

MacFarlane, The University of South Australia, K. (2014). A Sport, A Tradition, A Religion, A Joke: The Need for a Poetics of In-ring Storytelling and a Reclamation of Professional Wrestling as a Global Art. Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature, 6(2), 136–155. https://doi.org/10.31436/asiatic.v6i2.265

Issue

Section

Poetry and Poetics of Popular Culture