Bodies, Narratives, Selves, and Autobiography

Abstract

This article focuses on Lance Armstrong’s autobiography titled It’s Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life. From a perspective informed by autobiographical studies and the sociology of the body and illness, insights are provided into a variety of bodies, selves, and narratives that circulate within the text. The case is made that early in his sporting career, Armstrong develops a disciplined and dominating body that has an elective affinity for the cyborg narrative. On being diagnosed with cancer, these ideal body types lead him toward a restitution narrative. The illness experience, however, provides an opportunity for a communicative body to emerge that links him to a quest narrative. On returning to elite sport, former body-self relationships are restored and foregrounded. Issues are raised regarding the cultural shaping of Armstrong’s autobiography, and its form and content are problematized.

Sampling in Interview-Based Qualitative Research: A Theoretical and Practical Guide

“…An example of a paper that evidences multiple aims is Sparke's narrative analysis of the autobiography of cyclist Lance Armstrong (Sparkes, 2004). It includes aspects of psychobiography, hermeneutic insight and construct problematizing.…”

Intimations of postmodernity in sports tourism at the Tour de France

“…Sociologists have also demonstrated numerous ways whereby sporting and recreational bodies are both mediated by, and produce, postmodern representations, lifestyles and identities (Atkinson, 2008;Brevik, 2010;Butryn & Masucci, 2003;Sparkes, 2004;Woodward, 2009). Yet embodiment has received meagre attention in sports tourism research.…”

Taking sporting autobiographies seriously as an analytical and pedagogical resource in sport, exercise and health

“…For example, Sparkes (2004) combines these to explore Lance Armstrong's (2000) autobiography (co-authored by Sally Jenkins) entitled, It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life. His thematic analysis illustrates the ways in which pre-cancer, Armstrong developed a disciplined and dominating body (Frank, 1991) and how this led him to have an marked affinity for the restitution narrative (Frank, 2013) when he was diagnosed with testicular cancer.…”

“…Importantly, by enabling a better understanding of the metaphors available to athletes to use in their stories, their work shows both how and why it is very difficult for athletes to transition between narratives types and different kinds of body-self relationships over time. Equally, their combined thematic and structural analysis, along with that of Sparkes (2004) expands our understanding of what it means for athletes who become seriously ill when they are faced with a limited repertoire or stock of metaphors with which to make sense of their experience as they attempt to re-story their body-self relationships and communicate all of this to those around them as part of a complex and dynamic process.…”