Abstract

Duelism: Confronting Sport Through Its Doubles is a critical collection that adopts a consciously interdisciplinary approach to sport studies. To that end, Duelism reflects the many corollaries of sport studies by including treatments from diverse critical viewpoints and bringing them into direct conversation. This view of sport as a multifaceted area of study carries into our chosen focus: confronting sport through its doubles. This collection thus treats the broader concept of sport by observing how sports and sporting culture are defined through their relationships to diverse facets of life and society. From nationhood to race, to violence and gender, Duelism curates critical readings from sport scholars across many fields that acknowledge and interrogate the concept of sport by exploring it in connection with its significant doubles: an approach we have termed “duelism.” The term “duelism” accounts for two important features of sport: first, that the development of sports and the academic legitimatization of sport studies has been defined by intense periods of adversity or struggle. Sporting culture and studies have been marked by a series of conflicts, centering on issues such as the organization and purpose of activities, who can and cannot play them, or how they should be integrated into people’s lives. In addition to capturing the spirit of combat and contestation that has so long defined sport in society, Duelism explicitly underscores sports’ inherent duality, as a positive and negative force, and highlights our collective approach to reading and critiquing sport through its many doubles.