From the Baedeker to the bull ring and the boxing ring: spaces of sport in Death in the Afternoon (1932)

Abstract

ABSTRACTThrough his work, Death in the Afternoon (1932), Ernest Hemingway provides access to international cultural heritage that States-side readers might not have otherwise. In crossing inquiries regarding space and sports together, the intimate relationship between the two comes to the forefront, emphasising Hemingway’s passion for both. Readers may ask themselves if Hemingway uses sports to write about Spain, or if he uses Spain to write about sports: the two topics are intrinsically linked, especially in this work of non-fiction dedicated to the sport of bullfighting. In this analysis based on a geocritical approach and literary cartography, I am going to study the relationship between narrative spaces and sports to pinpoint how and to what extent Hemingway exploits Spanish geography and the sport of bullfighting as representative of a system of sportsmanship values. More precisely, this analysis will identify Hemingway’s spatial intertextuality of bullfighting Spain, the multiplicity of geographic scales, and the stratification of sports spaces. By aligning the Spanish ‘art’ with athletics known to the American audience, Hemingway renders the unknown ‘knowable’, without requiring readers to be ‘always looking at map’.