Soccer has the unique ability to represent and strengthen different cultural identities and ideologies throughout the world. Perhaps nowhere can this be seen more prominently than in Spain, which has surged to the forefront of the world's most popular sport. The national team has won the last two European Championships and the 2010 World Cup, while the two preeminent club teams in Spain, Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, have reached the semifinals of the UEFA Champions League in 2011, 2012, and 2013. Even before the sport became a global phenomenon, soccer had established a strong connection with Spanish identity and culture. In Soccer in Spain: Politics, Literature, and Film, Timothy J. Ashton examines the sport's association with Spanish culture and society. In this volume, Ashton demonstrates how Spain's soccer clubs reflected the politics of the region they represented and continue to reflect them today. The author also explores the often-tenuous relationship between the intellectual classes and the soccer community in Spain. Although some of the country's most highly-praised literary figures had a passion for soccer-which was often reflected in their work-many intellectuals deemed the topic unsuitable for critical study. Ashton also discusses how soccer films faced a similar rebuff from Spanish intellectuals, though the popularity of these films has grown in recent years. As soccer continues to be one of the modern world's most significant representations of globalization, its importance as a cultural touchpoint cannot be ignored. For anyone wanting to learn more about the relationship between soccer, politics, and popular culture, this volume offers critical insights. Soccer in Spain is a valuable read for students and scholars of Spanish political history, literature, film, and sport.

About the Author
Timothy J. Ashton is assistant professor of Spanish literatures and cultures at the University of South Carolina Aiken.

Reviews
As he suggests in this book's subtitle, Ashton divides his study into three parts, treating the role soccer has played in Spanish political history, Spanish literature, and Spanish cinema. Though the first part, 'Tackling Spain's National Identity Crisis,' is based on a dated, shallow historiography and is unsatisfactory, the subsequent two parts offer much of merit. . . . By creating a straw man out of intellectual titans like Jorge Luis Borges, who was unabashed in his soccer antipathies, Ashton seeks to proclaim the legitimacy of kick-lit and kick-flicks as modern genres while also demonstrating how soccer has long been a subject of enthusiasm in the writings of some of Spain's cultural elite. Ashton's primary informant is Argentine-born soccer champion Jorge Valdano, who not only was a forward and general manager for Real Madrid (a Madrid soccer club) but is also a kick-lit author and very clearly an ambassador of Spanish soccer who crosses many of Spain's class and cultural demarcations. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and above; general readers. * CHOICE *



Book Information
ISBN 9780810891739
Author Timothy J. Ashton
Format Hardback
Page Count 238
Imprint Scarecrow Press
Publisher Scarecrow Press
Weight(grams) 472g
Dimensions(mm) 234mm * 160mm * 22mm