Sports and Spectacular Aspects of American Wrestling (on the Case of WWE)

Student: Kirienko Sergei

Supervisor: Olga Roginskaya

Educational Programme: Applied Cultural Studies (Master)

Final Grade: 8

Year of Graduation: 2018

This research is devoted to the American professional wrestling of World Wrestling Entertainment. The purpose of the study is to investigate, why it is impossible in professional wrestling (on the case of WWE) to distinguish between reality and the imaginary world. In order to achieve this purpose wrestling is compared with different cultural practices. In the second part professional wrestling is considered as theatre and as serial. In the third part wrestling is described as sport. The fourth part is devoted to correlation of wrestling with circus and performance. The research demonstrates that professional wrestling is the unique cultural practice, which can’t be described like any known area. Besides, the mechanism of wrestling perception by the fans is analyzed. Finally, the reasons why it is impossible in wrestling to separate the real world from the imaginary one are defined.

Full text (added May 28, 2018)

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