Changing bodies, changing narratives and the consequences of tellability: a case study of becoming disabled through sport

Abstract

This 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.

A Sociology of Nothing: Understanding the Unmarked

“…Biographical narratives about lost opportunities and roads not taken in life may help us to make sense of what might have been. In contrast to the grief stories told about mortified objects, such as the anguished account of a former rugby player whose spinal injury ended his sporting career (Smith and Sparkes 2008), tales of never--held objects assume a more wistful, nostalgic tone as we try to grasp the intangible (Davis 1979). The negative object is used to perform narrative identity work on the current self and account for its actions.…”

A qualitative study of the impact of the London 2012 Olympics on families in the East Midlands of England: lessons for sports development policy and practice

“…Long and Carless (2013) call upon researchers to reflect upon which voices they privilege and prioritise to ensure that less strident voices are not silenced. Telling the stories of these families through video as their (albeit partially incomplete) 'stories' is one way that such hidden voices can be brought to the fore (Cherrington and Watson, 2010;Smith and Sparkes, 2008). This is not to ignore that the very nature of prioritising research findings and the limitations of dissemination outlets is by its essence a process that will exclude elements of the stories and diary extracts of the families in this project.…”

The Handbook of Narrative Analysis

“…That is, the body -Burt's multiple sclerosis, Rhea's cancer, mastectomy, and tattoos -is not only constructed in stories, but exists beyond those stories as both fleshy object and subjective experience; in turn, this material reality, which I call the individual's object body, shapes the stories that the individual tells about it. Smith and Sparkes (2008) demonstrate this phenomenon in their analysis of Jamie's narratives. Jamie was paralyzed by spinal cord injury (SCI) and Smith and Sparkes argue that, while he is initially drawn to tell a restitution narrative and present his injured body as fixable, eventually the physical reality and severity of his injuries obscures his ability to tell this narrative.…”