Chaos narrative March-Soc-Health-Illness-final.pdf (138.82 kB)
Changing bodies, changing narratives and the consequences of tellability: a case study of becoming disabled through sport
journal contribution
posted on 2014-07-28, 09:32 authored by Brett Smith, Andrew C. SparkesThis article explores the life story of a young man who experienced a spinal cord
injury (SCI) and became disabled though playing the sport of rugby union
football. His experiences post SCI illuminate the ways in which movement from
one form of embodiment to another connects him to a dominant cultural
narrative regarding recovery from SCI that is both tellable and acceptable in terms
of plot and structure to those around him. Over time, the obdurate facts of his
impaired and disabled body lead him to reject this dominant narrative and move
into a story line that is located on Norrick’s (2005) upper-bounding side of
tellability. This makes it transgressive, frightening, difficult to hear, and invokes
the twin processes of deprivation of opportunity and infiltrated consciousness as
described by Nelson (2001). These, and the effects of impairment, are seen to
have direct consequences for the tellability of embodied experiences along with
identity construction and narrative repair over time. Finally, some reflections are
offered on how the conditions that negate the telling of his story might be
challenged.
History
School
- Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences
Published in
Sociology of Health & IllnessVolume
30Issue
2Pages
217 - 236Citation
SMITH, B. and SPARKES, A.C., 2008. Changing bodies, changing narratives and the consequences of tellability: a case study of becoming disabled through sport. Sociology of Health & Illness, 30(2), pp.217-236.Publisher
Wiley (© The Authors/© Foundation for the Sociology of Health & Illness)Version
- AM (Accepted Manuscript)
Publication date
2008Notes
This is the accepted version of the following article: SMITH, B. and SPARKES, A.C., 2008. Changing bodies, changing narratives and the consequences of tellability: a case study of becoming disabled through sport. Sociology of Health & Illness, 30(2), pp.217-236, which has been published in final form at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9566.2007.01033.xISSN
0141-9889eISSN
1467-9566Publisher version
Language
- en