Muhammad Ali : trickster in the culture of irony / Charles Lemert.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lemert, Charles.

Series:

Celebrities

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ali, Muḣammad, 1942-.

Ali, Muḣammad.

Boxers (Sports)--United States--Biography.

Boxers (Sports).

African American boxers.

United States.

African American boxers--Biography.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

215 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, UK : Polity Press ; Malden, MA : Distributed in the USA by Blackwell Pub., 2003.

Summary:

Muhammad Ali has a unique place in global history. One of the most extraordinary athletes of all times, Ali is also, as he always was, an inadvertent but powerful figure in world affairs. From the first announcement of his membership in the Nation of Islam, through his courageous refusal to fight in Vietnam, to his spiritual calm in the face of crippling disease, Muhammad Ali's steady values have inspired others the world over to rethink their racial, political, and spiritual attitudes. Ali's life over the years has put irony in a different light. When Muhammad Ali stood against those who criticized him for converting to the Nation of Islam, he told the world "I don't have to be what you want me to be." What first appeared as simple defiance was revealed over the years as rock solid conviction -- a conviction that allowed him to be and do what he believed in, while also embracing the world in his loving and laughing way. Charles Lemert writes with grace, perspective, and affection. Muhammad Ali is the first book to unravel the reasons for the enduring respect and reverence that Muhammad Ali commands long after the end of his athletic career. This text will appeal to those teaching and studying cultural studies, social theory, sports studies, and sociology, as well as to general readers interested in Muhammad Ali.

Contents:

1 From the Beginnings: GG is Gonna Whip Everybody 1

2 Celebrity, Tricks, and Culture: Float like a Butterfly, Sting like a Bee 26

3 Trickster Queers the World: I Don't Have to Be What You Want Me to Be 51

4 The Irony of Global Cultures: No Viet Cong Ever Called Me Nigger 86

5 Coming Home to the Heart of Darkness: When We Were Kings 120

6 Trickster Bodies and Cultural Death: You'll Die One Day ... So Better Get Ready 150

Ali and the World: A Chronology 177.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 188-206) and index.

ISBN:

0745628702

0745628710

OCLC:

51330587