Running for Freedom: The Politics of Long-Distance Running in Modern Fiction

Abstract

This essay analyses the uses of running in contemporary fiction. It addresses the question of the literariness of running, and the ways in which literature enables us to articulate aspects of the sport such as its heroism or its relationship to the nation. It looks at a number of fictional texts, and focuses largely on two important works, ‘The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner’, Sillitoe's celebrated novella of 1958, and Jean Echenoz's novel, Running, published 50 years later. This essay examines the quality of running defined in literature, then looks at its traditional function of celebration of heroes, before closing on the freedom associated with running in such works.