ABSTRACT
Consideration of distance as a condition of knowledge alongside a new understanding of the genre of football fiction provide cornerstones in a chapter that draws on mapping as a distant reading model of abstraction to reflect changing conventions and distinctions in novels aimed at readerships differentiated by age. The distant approach is then aligned with close reading methods of textual analysis of two exemplars to illustrate the conventions and consider and compare line-level similarities and divergences, such as the immutable requirements of a pitch, as well as traditional characteristics and recurring themes operating within the genre.
