Re-viewing the woman as fan: an examination of the narrative framing of the women in cinematic adaptations of Nick Hornby’s fever pitch

Abstract

Nick Hornby’s memoir, Fever Pitch (1992) is pivotal in deepening our understanding of the experience of the western male football (soccer) fan and has received proportionate academic scrutiny. In contrast, its two film adaptations have received very little. Significantly, these adaptations, one football (1997 UK), one baseball (2005 US), foreground a heterosexual romantic relationship and weight the success of this relationship with a woman whose character is transformed from uninitiated to deeply connected, ‘authentic’ fan. Yet, this transformative experience can be seen to undermine, or delegitimize, the fandom of women in sports domains. Where studies of women as fans in film and literature are limited and studies of the women in the central roles in Hornby’s sports’ texts even more so, this paper seeks to situate women as ‘real fans’ in fictional narratives alongside those in other emergent forms of contemporary sporting fandom.