The Fining of Vinnie Jones

Abstract

This article is a hermeneutic analysis of the symbolic deployment of a player, Vinnie Jones, at a certain moment in football culture. It examines the meanings which various groups involved in football called up in the creation of and response to the video, 'Soccer's Hard Men'. The piece situates these meanings within postmodern English culture which is defined by reference to Jameson's (1991) and Martin's (1985) discussions of this term. The article attempts to connect the meanings which 'Vinnie' embodies for various groups with the politics of those groups. The piece suggests that the video deploys certain 'postmodern' and contradictory meanings in order to ensure its sales and goes onto examine the politics of the FA's interpretation of 'Vinnie' as a symbol. The article tries to sketch the linkage between this interpretation and the FA's notion of the Premier League and the FA's attempt to legitimate this notion.

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