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
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2012
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MacFarlane, K.
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Journal article
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Asiatic, 2012; 6(2):136-155
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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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Copyright 2012 IIUM International Islamic University Malaysia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)