doi.org
Threats Without and Within: The Limits of Riskless Risk in the Contemporary American Sports Novel
This article examines two 2020 sports novels (The Cactus League by Emily Nemens and A Short Move by Katherine Hill) through the lens of riskless risk, a notion developed by Nicky Marsh by drawing on the work of Slavoj Zizek. My contention is that these novels depict an increasing separation between wealthy athletes and general society, a separation to which they are subjected by the superstructure constituted by sports leagues/franchises. Such phenomena reflect a trend towards riskless risk in American society at-large. However, I show that the peculiarities of sports entail significantly different iterations of riskless risk for athletes: firstly, because the dynamic between their intense training and inner drive produces high degrees of self-centeredness that render them assets in the eyes of the league and the fans; secondly, because the physical nature of sports naturally leads to constant threats to the body and shortens the athletes’ careers; thirdly, because the dynamic between training and inner drive fosters unmanageable competitive impulses that evade the protection afforded by the league. I also demonstrate that the last point is the mark of contemporaryAmerican sports literature. Finally, I discuss the relative lack of interest of contemporary literary fiction authors in professional sports people.
![Call For Papers
James Kelman at 80
Conference, spring 2027, Glasgow
2026 sees Glaswegian writer James Kelman reach his 80th year. In a career lasting over fifty years, Kelman has pioneered a highly distinctive literary practice across genres including the novel, the short story, the essay, and drama. But it is as a writer of fiction that Kelman’s influence looms largest. Kelman’s work in fiction is distinguished for its uncompromising formal stances and for the writer’s insistence on the directly political significance of those stances. As Kelman put it in an early interview, ‘Getting rid of [the] standard third party narrative voice is getting rid of a whole value system. You have to start examining every term’. His work has been hugely influential on generations of artists, and his reception has often been controversial. But his artistic commitments remain determinedly in place, and he continues to write and publish unique work.
This international conference sets out to consider the living legacy of Kelman’s writing, especially in the genres of the novel and the short story, and examines and reassesses his ongoing significance in the cultural and political worlds of the twenty-first century. We invite paper proposals on the innovations of Kelman’s fiction and its political significance, focusing on any period or aspect of Kelman’s work. The conference will be held at the University of Glasgow, in the spring of 2027 (exact date to be confirmed). More information to follow.
Please send c. 200-word paper proposals to Andrea Brown, Executive Support Assistant in the School of Critical Studies, University of Glasgow, via email <critstudies-hos@gla.ac.uk>, by the deadline of Tuesday 30th June 2026.
Organisers
● Professor Timothy Bewes (Brown University)
● Professor Scott Hames (University of Stirling)
● Professor Simon Kővesi (University of Glasgow)](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:vur5qn7d4tqqyqefnjx6blh2/bafkreihoyr5277cvcexbf53l4xv4psrp35byqflbuy2em7qsott2d3nfiu)
