English Football and Its Hong Kong Television Audience

In his paper "English Football and Its Hong Kong Television Audience," Victor Fan applies Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari's thought in their Kafka. Pour une litterature mineure to map the relationship between the English Premier League of football (soccer) and its Hong Kong television audience/spectatorship. Fan first introduces the background of the English Premier League in relation to its increasing subjugation under Thatcherite and post-Thatcherite consumerist economy. He then examines how the Premier League as televised image transforms the game to hyperreality. Fan argues that these are conditions under which the subaltern would appropriate the hyper-sign as an individuated mental screen, which, in turn, triggers the process of becominganimal. This allows the subaltern to form a contiguous relationship with the exaggerated diabolical power, rewrites the codes of signification, and claims, finally, ownership to her/his own virtual game and virtual desire. Fan proposes that this process leads to the dismantling of the major game to the nth degree and a true deterritorialization of all forms perceived. Victor Fan, "English Football and Its Hong Kong Television Audience" page 2 of 13 CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 8.1 (2006)