Orphan girl novels<\/h2>\n
These novels are a staple of North American children\u2019s literature, which flourished from the mid-19th century. Classic examples include Pollyanna<\/a> by Eleanor H. Porter (1913) and L. M. Montgomery\u2019s Anne of Green Gables<\/a> (1908).<\/p>\n They follow a familiar pattern: an orphaned girl arrives in a new home that is reluctant to accept her, and she ultimately transforms those around her for the better. Replace \u201corphaned girl\u201d with \u201cmiddle-aged male sports coach\u201d and you have Ted.<\/p>\n This is not just a playful comparison. Rather, as I argue in a new paper<\/a>, the comparison illuminates both what the show is doing and the literary lineage to which it (arguably) belongs.<\/p>\n Using orphan girl novels to study Ted Lasso brings certain themes into sharper focus \u2013 particularly its concern with fatherhood. Several characters, especially Ted (played by Jason Sudeikis), struggle with difficult paternal relationships. This, again, is a preoccupation of orphan girl stories, which often feature absent fathers. In fact, Ted\u2019s habit of finding positives in bleak situations recalls Pollyanna\u2019s \u201cglad game\u201d \u2013 a strategy she learns from her father and uses to cling to his memory.<\/p>\n The \u201cglad game\u201d is not uncomplicated<\/a>. It can also function as emotional deflection, burying grief and pain beneath strained positivity. This tension bubbles up powerfully in Ted Lasso\u2019s second season, when Ted must confront his resentment over his father\u2019s death by suicide before he can bring his glad game to others. Viewed as an orphan girl story, the show becomes not just about dads, but about coping \u2013 and the uneasy coexistences of love and resentment that shape so many people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n The comparison also works in reverse \u2013 using Ted Lasso to look at orphan girl stories afresh. A key concept in these books is \u201cmoral suasion\u201d<\/a>: the idea that love and affection can change people\u2019s behaviour. Over time, the original authors seemed to become concerned that this kind of discipline seemed rather manipulative. Montgomery, for example, had Anne of Green Gables influence the people around her by laughing, suppressing her longing for stylish dresses and, in one of my favourite examples, being really bad at praying. These characters inspire others without trying.<\/p>\n Ted, though, tries. Indeed, as a coach, it is his job to manipulate others\u2019 emotions to get the best from them. This is especially evident in his relationship with gruff, resentful, all-but-washed-up Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein), the ageing captain whom Ted deliberately manoeuvres into effective leadership.<\/p>\n In other words, Ted Lasso takes moral suasion and asks whether it can be a strategy of power. The answer seems to be that it can \u2013 if making someone \u201cbetter\u201d means making them a better version of themselves. Similarly, researchers have long wrestled<\/a> with the fact that while the sentimental pull of orphan girl novels emanated from the girls\u2019 outsider status, they were outsiders in a limited sense \u2013 white, Christian girls in a North America that marginalised other groups, especially Black people, with far greater brutality.<\/p>\n Again, Ted Lasso confronts this half-truth, particularly through the character of Sam Obisanya. Like Ted, Sam \u2013 a struggling overseas signing \u2013 is an outsider at Richmond FC, but the show explores plotlines in which Ted cannot always be the author of Sam\u2019s belonging, because the two are different types of outsiders.<\/p>\n I hope this comparative methodology can be fruitful for my field of children\u2019s literature research, but also for other areas of enquiry. Placing Ted Lasso in the tradition of orphan girl novels invites us to think more deeply about what gives older books life beyond their intended readerships, as well as the social and emotional appeal of these characters and storylines.<\/p>\n I was reminded of the emotions at stake in such work recently, when a student wrote me a very moving letter comparing me to Ted. Whether I deserve the comparison or not, I certainly hope that being like Ted \u2013 or, for that matter, Pollyanna, Anne, or my personal favourite, Emily of New Moon<\/a> \u2013 might help spread more kindness. <\/p>\n These stories are fantasies \u2013 but fantasies we want to be true. Then again, maybe the student was just pointing out that, also like Ted, I am also an American transplant who, after years of living in England, still doesn\u2019t understand soccer. I mean, football\u2026<\/p>\n This article features references to books that have been included for editorial reasons, and may contain links to bookshop.org. If you click on one of the links and go on to buy something, The Conversation UK may earn a commission.<\/em><\/p>\n Joe Sutliff Sanders receives funding from the University of Cambridge and has won grants from UKRI. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ted Lasso \u2013 an Apple TV comedy-drama about an American football coach hired to lead a struggling Premier League team \u2013 has returned for a fourth season, this time with a women\u2019s team at the heart of both the comedy and the drama. I can\u2019t wait. As a researcher of children\u2019s literature \u2013 including comics, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1287\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"The](\"https:\/\/counter.theconversation.com\/content\/288635\/count.gif\")
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