Terra Ludus: A Novel about Media, Gender and Sport

228 Pages·2016·7.189 MB·English

by  Toni Bruce (auth.)

Terra Ludus
Social Fictions Series
Series Editor
Patricia Leavy
USA
The Social Fictions series emerges out of the arts-based research
movement. The series includes full-length fiction books that are
informed by social research but written in a literary/artistic form
(novels, plays, and short story collections). Believing there is much to
learn through fiction, the series only includes works written entirely
in the literary medium adapted. Each book includes an academic
introduction that explains the research and teaching that informs the
book as well as how the book can be used in college courses. The books
are underscored with social science or other scholarly perspectives
and intended to be relevant to the lives of college students—to tap into
important issues in the unique ways that artistic or literary forms can.
Please email queries to [email protected]
International Editorial Advisory Board
Carl Bagley, University of Durham, UK
Anna Banks, University of Idaho, USA
Carolyn Ellis, University of South Florida, USA
Rita Irwin, University of British Columbia, Canada
J. Gary Knowles, University of Toronto, Canada
Laurel Richardson, The Ohio State University (Emeritus), USA
Terra Ludus
A Novel about Media, Gender and Sport
Toni Bruce
A C.I.P. record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN: 978-94-6300-768-9 (paperback)
ISBN: 978-94-6300-769-6 (hardback)
ISBN: 978-94-6300-770-2 (e-book)
Published by: Sense Publishers,
P.O. Box 21858,
3001 AW Rotterdam,
The Netherlands
https://www.sensepublishers.com/
All chapters in this book have undergone peer review.
Printed on acid-free paper
All Rights Reserved © 2016 Sense Publishers
No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
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exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and
executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work.
PRAISE FOR
TERRA LUDUS
“Surely a new classic, Terra Ludus reverberates in the traditions of both
Aotearoa literature and best basketball fiction. Toni Bruce reassembles
sport into a narrative imbued with high fashion, futurology, beloved
characters, and collective tales of patriarchy-womanhood-sensuality.
Bruce vividly – I laughed, cried, appreciated irony, quickly read ahead
– narrates a future world that she and her characters interlace with
fresh and sometimes shocking sport-media tropes and turns of plot.
For Bruce, the future of sport is both terrifying and wondrous and for
those reasons alone, I loved this book – it’s smart and never typical –
beach reading and graduate seminar material all at once.”
– Synthia Sydnor, Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign
“Terra Ludus is entertaining fiction that actually gets us thinking about
the complicated and often disturbing relations of the commercialism of
sports, the globalism of media and the persistence of gender bias and
violence. Using popular culture pedagogically to think about popular
culture and power, Terra Ludus is a valuable tool for critical thought.”
– Lawrence Grossberg, Ph.D., University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill
“Imaginatively grounded in patriarchal and misogynist worldviews,
Terra Ludus describes a future world where unbalanced opportunities
for sportspeople remain. It is both engaging and thoughtful, a balance
between a literary, thought-provoking and exciting story. We follow
Daniela Bartoli, a feminist social justice warrior who fights for
equity and opportunity for women in a dystopian future where sport
opportunities for skilled female basketball players still are limited. She
becomes the face of a new league, suffering misogynist threats and
soldiering on for equal opportunity. Toni Bruce has produced a tour de
force. She confronts the dominance of male sport in popular culture,
media and popular consciousness by writing a future world, not unlike
our own, where sexism is still very real. Terra Ludus makes us ponder
whether each new generation has to fight for social justice anew.”
– Robert Rinehart, Ph.D., University of Waikato
“Terra Ludus is a sine qua non tale about Third Wave Feminism.
Set in a future society, it asks: What could happen if dominant ideas
about women, sports, sexuality, ethnicity and the media left over from
the Twentieth-Century are challenged head-on by women athletes?
Finding out will keep readers reading, students buzzing.”
– Laurel Richardson, Ph.D., The Ohio State University
“Toni Bruce, sports reporter, sport columnist and academic, turns her
keen literary eye on the spectacular failure of sport studies scholars and
activists to convince mainstream sports media to increase coverage of
women’s sport. Her gripping story turns this narrative on its head, and
shows all of us how things could be different. Terra Ludus is a story
about what can happen when long-held ideas about women and sport
are disrupted. She shows us how to move forward. This is the power
of storytelling.”
– Norman K. Denzin, Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign
To my family, who nurtured my writing efforts and raised me
to love language and stories. To SBL, my first and last reader,
whose faith in my capabilities far exceeds my own.
And to Stuart Hall (1932–2014), Norman Denzin and
Laurel Richardson for being the kinds of writers,
change-makers and academics I can only aspire to be.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface xi
Acknowledgements xv
Chapter 1: End of an Era 1
Chapter 2: Real Life? 7
Chapter 3: Friends 11
Chapter 4: Speaking Out 17
Chapter 5: Vid World 27
Chapter 6: The Meeting 33
Chapter 7: Back to Normality? 49
Chapter 8: Eat Shit and Die 59
Chapter 9: Threat 73
Chapter 10: Getting Ready 79
Chapter 11: Back on the Court 83
Chapter 12: Training 93
Chapter 13: The Announcement 99
Chapter 14: PR 105
Chapter 15: Warning 111
Chapter 16: Authenticity 115
Chapter 17: Downtime 125
Chapter 18: More Support 131
ix