Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Thesis Format

Monograph

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy

Program

Theory and Criticism

Supervisor

Dr. Michael Gardiner

Abstract

In tracing the concept of religion to its theorization and study by French sociologist Émile Durkheim this dissertation presents concrete and abstract support for a commonly forwarded proposition: fanaticism of the modern spectacle of sports amounts to religiosity, characterized by a social logic of vitality and totemism, notably present as well in the ancient Roman spectacle and Greek agōn. Based in the contemporary theory of French sociologist Michel Maffesoli, following Durkheim and the study of the sacred by Le Collège de Sociologie, this dissertation contributes an immersive and critical investigation into the nascent but encompassing online dimension of fanaticism of the spectacle of sports, including the phenomenon of the ‘Game Thread’ in online sports forums, ultimately relating a prodigious affectual and discursive scope of influence to forms of religiosity concomitant with myth and ritual.

Summary for Lay Audience

In tracing the concept of religion to its theorization and study by French sociologist Émile Durkheim this dissertation presents concrete and abstract support for a commonly forwarded proposition: fanaticism of the modern spectacle of sports amounts to religiosity, characterized by a social logic of vitality and totemism, notably present as well in the ancient Roman spectacle and Greek agōn. Based in the contemporary theory of French sociologist Michel Maffesoli, following Durkheim and the study of the sacred by Le Collège de Sociologie, this dissertation contributes an immersive and critical investigation into the nascent but encompassing online dimension of fanaticism of the spectacle of sports, including the phenomenon of the ‘Game Thread’ in online sports forums, ultimately relating a prodigious affectual and discursive scope of influence to forms of religiosity concomitant with myth and ritual.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.

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