Author(s): MOHAMED SHAFEEQ K.
Journal: ThirdFront : Journal of Humanities and Social Science
ISSN 2320-9631
Volume: 1;
Issue: 1;
Start page: 49;
Date: 2013;
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Keywords: Football | Malapuram | Popular game
ABSTRACT
This paper argues that while it remains a fact that football is the most visible sport in Malappuram, football also allows identifications for the mainstream to describe Malappuram that is by definition in this discourse an other-ed space. By delineating the importance of affect in football and its resistance to being quantified, I argue that the form of football necessitates a spectator whose spectatorship has to be manifested in bodily rituals. I also argue that the category fan has historically been identified with a site of lack – sociological, economical, political – and it is this historical function that a Malappuram football fan serves in the mainstream imagination. I then attempt to read football fandom in Malappuram through the lens of glocalization to argue that more than identification, it is dis-identification – a divorce with the actual racial, geographic, national specificities – that is at the core of Malappuram football fandom.
Journal: ThirdFront : Journal of Humanities and Social Science
ISSN 2320-9631
Volume: 1;
Issue: 1;
Start page: 49;
Date: 2013;
VIEW PDF
DOWNLOAD PDF Original pageKeywords: Football | Malapuram | Popular game
ABSTRACT
This paper argues that while it remains a fact that football is the most visible sport in Malappuram, football also allows identifications for the mainstream to describe Malappuram that is by definition in this discourse an other-ed space. By delineating the importance of affect in football and its resistance to being quantified, I argue that the form of football necessitates a spectator whose spectatorship has to be manifested in bodily rituals. I also argue that the category fan has historically been identified with a site of lack – sociological, economical, political – and it is this historical function that a Malappuram football fan serves in the mainstream imagination. I then attempt to read football fandom in Malappuram through the lens of glocalization to argue that more than identification, it is dis-identification – a divorce with the actual racial, geographic, national specificities – that is at the core of Malappuram football fandom.
