Representatıon of Symbolıc Battles in Amerıcan Football Fıctıon: Don Delıllo S End Zone, John Grısham S Bleachers And Dan Jenkıns Semı-Tough

Abstract

The battle discourse in American football is used in literary works to address the controversies, conflicts and struggles that the American nation neglects or refrains from encountering. Don DeLillo, in End Zone (1972), narrates the controversial views of a group of undergraduate American football players and their sexually ambiguous tendencies through the battle discourse of American football. IJohn Grisham, in his work Bleachers (2004), uses the symbolic battle discourse to formulate the concepts of immortality and the post-self. In the novel, the values placed on the football culture of Messina High School, namely success and failure, personal and social conflicts, collective memory and personal memories, are presented as the instruments that will decide the prestige of an athlete after his death. In his fictional work, Semi-Tough (1972), Dan Jenkins portrays the African American fight for equality in America through the discourse and context of American football.