Getting to Grips with Wrestling History and its Uses for Literary Scholars
Abstract
The history of traditional wrestling is arguably little known amongst many literary scholars, and yet the sport features in a number of historic literary texts, including some by Shakespeare, Chaucer and Thomas Hardy as well as more recent authors such as Winston Graham. This review article suggests that a literary scholar might benefit from learning more about the sport history. Mike Tripp’s Cornish Wrestling: A History is an examination of a little known and, currently, little practised sport which was once popular in both England and amongst the English diaspora, featuring in a number of nineteenth-century English novels, such as R.D. Blackmore’s Lorna Doone. The review shows how Tripp’s detailed history of the sport might be used to illustrate potentially useful details in selected literary texts, which might otherwise be obscure to a literary researcher, including examination of the wider culture and practice of wrestling in the English West Country, and remarks on how the history of Cornwall can explain the sport’s presence and role in various literary texts.
Keywords:
history of traditional wrestling, nineteenth-century English novels, R.D. Blackmore, history of Cornwall, English West CountryReferences
Baring-Gould, S. (1908), Devonshire Characters and Strange Events. London: J. Lane. Google Scholar
Baring-Gould, S. (1909), Cornish Characters and Strange Events. London: J. Lane. Google Scholar
Blackmore, R.D. (1890), Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor. London: G.P. Putnam’s and Son. Google Scholar
Blackmore, R.D. (1894), Perlycrosse: A Tale of the Western Hills. London: Sampson Low, Marston and Co. Google Scholar
Blackmore, R.D. (1889 [1864]), Clara Vaughan (12th ed). London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle and Rivington. Google Scholar
Dickens, C. (1858), Feats at the Ferry. Household Words (Feb. 6.). Google Scholar
Hawthorne, N. (2023 [1850]), The Scarlet Letter. Germany: Bod Third Party Titles. Google Scholar
Huggins, M. (2001), The regular re-invention of sporting tradition and identity: Cumberland and Westmorland wrestling c. 1800–2000. The Sports Historian 21/1: 35–55. Google Scholar
Johnes, M. (2007), Texts, Audiences, and Postmodernism: The Novel as Source in Sport History. Journal of Sport History 34/1: 121–133. Google Scholar
Penjak, A./Karnincic, H. (2013), Sport and Literature: An Overview of the Wrestling Combats in the Early Literary Texts. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science 3/5: 49–55. Google Scholar
Quiller-Couch, A. (1896), Wandering Heath. London: Cassell and Company. Google Scholar
Robson, R. (1999), Cumberland and Westmorland Wrestling: A Documentary History. Carlisle: Bookcase. Google Scholar
Tripp, M. (2023), Cornish Wrestling: A History. St Agnes: Federation of Old Cornwall Societies. Google Scholar
Most read articles by the same author(s)
- Trevor Hill, THE PUNCH AND JUDY SHOW: ITS HISTORY AND CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE , Acta Neophilologica: Vol. 1 No. XX (2018): Acta Neophilologica
- Trevor Hill, The The use of literature and songs from varying cultures in Węgajty Theatre’s Kalevala; fragmenty niepisane , Acta Neophilologica: Vol. 1 No. XXV (2023): Acta Neophilologica
- Trevor Hill, "That's the Way to Wooooo It!" , Acta Neophilologica: Vol. 1 No. XXIV (2022): Acta Neophilologica
- Trevor Hill, No More Amber: The Baltic Literary Review Volumes 1 & 2. , Acta Neophilologica: Vol. 2 No. XXV (2023): Acta Neophilologica
- Trevor Hill, Webb’s Shropshire and Hardy’s Wessex: Literary and Geographical Influences on the Early Novels of Mary Webb , Acta Neophilologica: Vol. 1 No. XXVII (2025): Acta Neophilologica
- Trevor Hill, The Drama of Language Learning: Using English Literature with a Polish Teenage Youth Theatre , Acta Neophilologica: Vol. 1 No. XXVI (2024): Acta Neophilologica
- Trevor Hill, Elves, Crusaders and the Quest for a Plot: An Examination of the Historical and Mythical Inspirations behind Mary Webb’s "Armour Wherein He Trusted" , Acta Neophilologica: Vol. 1 No. XXVIII (2026): Acta Neophilologica
Similar Articles
- Monika Cichmińska, COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE LANGUAGE OF NEGATIVE EMOTIONS IN ENGLISH AND POLISH: COGNITIVE SEMANTICS , Acta Neophilologica: No. IV (2002): Acta Neophilologica
- Sławomir Studniarz, IN SEARCH OF A MODERN EPIC: ON THE GENERIC STATUS OF WALT WHITMAN’S SONG OF MYSELF , Acta Neophilologica: No. VII (2005): Acta Neophilologica
- Grzegorz Ojcewicz, The swastika and sexuality of fascism in Yaroslav Mogutin’s conception , Acta Neophilologica: No. VII (2005): Acta Neophilologica
- Ewa Kujawska-Lis, SOME FUNCTIONS OF "UTOPIAN BUSINESS" MOTIF IN NICHOLAS NICKLEBY BY CHARLES DICKENS , Acta Neophilologica: No. VII (2005): Acta Neophilologica
- Taтьянa Шарыпина, A Sorbian Myth about Krabat in the Context of German Cultural Tradition , Acta Neophilologica: Vol. 1 No. XVI (2014): Acta Neophilologica
- Nel Bielniak, Russian Multiculturalism in Aleksander Kuprin’s Work , Acta Neophilologica: Vol. 1 No. XVI (2014): Acta Neophilologica
- Елена Земская, Active processes in the field of derivation in contemporary Russian , Acta Neophilologica: No. VIII (2006): Acta Neophilologica
- Marcin Walczyński, SELECTED WORD-FORMATION PROCESSES IN TOK PISIN: COMPOUNDING, CONYERSION AND REDUPLICATION , Acta Neophilologica: No. IX (2007): Acta Neophilologica
- Sabine Donninghaus, »FOLGE DEINEM EIGENEN STERN!« - ZUR PRODUKTWERBUNG IM SPIEGEL DER RUSSISCHEN GESELLSCHAFT , Acta Neophilologica: No. IX (2007): Acta Neophilologica
- Joanna Orzechowska, The Tradition of Learning Church Slavonic Language in the Old Believers’ Primers from the Collection of the Monastery in Wojnowo , Acta Neophilologica: Vol. 1 No. XV (2013): Acta Neophilologica
<< < 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 > >>
You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.
