ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the football trope in literary fiction enables the writer to explore the workings of modernity. It concentrates on English football, as well as on the place of Irish soccer in contemporary Irish culture, or on the writings of the Hungarian novelist Peter Esterhazy, who places football at the centre of his writings. The chapter concentrates on heroism in football, before turning to an analysis of audiences. It also concentrates on Dermot Bolger's plays about football and the place of Irish soccer in contemporary Irish culture. The chapter focuses on the relationship between football and the nation in literature. It explores on heroism in football, and in particular on the fictional focus upon star players. The chapter turns to the relationship between football and the nation in literature, in order to bring to light varying modes of defining and understanding modernity through football.
