Team Work? Using Sporting Fiction as an Historical Archive and Source of Developing Theoretical Approaches to Sport History

Abstract

This article seeks to explore some theoretical and methodological issues that have arisen in a wider study into sport, gender and sexuality. The study aims to bring together, in creative ways, different academic traditions of history, literature and gender studies through a common medium – the novel. My foundational assumption is that knowledge may be both generated and uncovered through fictional representations such as Tom Brown's Schooldays (1857), This Sporting Life (1960) and Fever Pitch ([1992] 2000). The questions the article poses are: what are the epistemological implications of reading sporting histories through fictional representations? How might we theorise about the lived reality of historical actors through a reading of sport novels? How can fictional texts be read alongside more traditional archival material? I argue that the novel allows access to theoretical thinking that enables an examination of human conditions such as the need for fantasy, intuition and myth, which other archival material might not reveal, thus enriching our understanding of the past.

Cet article cherche à explorer certaines questions théoriques et méthodologiques qui ont surgi plus largement dans les études sur le sport, le genre et la sexualité. L'étude vise à rassembler, de façon innovatrice, les différentes traditions académiques de formation en histoire, la littérature et les études de genre à travers un medium commun: le roman. Mon hypothèse fondamentale est que la connaissance peut être à la fois produite et découverte à travers des représentations fictionnelles telles que Tom Brown's Schooldays (1857), This Sporting Life (1960) et Fever Pitch ([1992] 2000). Les questions que cet article pose sont les suivantes: quelles sont les implications épistémologiques de la lecture d'histoires sportives à travers des représentations de fiction ? Comment peut-on théoriser la réalité vécue par les acteurs historiques à travers la lecture des romans de sport? Comment des textes de fiction peuvent-ils être lus en parallèle de documents d'archives plus traditionnels ? Je soutiens que le roman permet d'accéder à la pensée théorique qui autorise un examen des conditions humaines tels que les besoins d'imagination, d'intuition et de mythe, que d'autres matériaux d'archives ne pourraient pas révéler, en contribuant ainsi à enrichir notre compréhension du passé.

Dieser Artikel versucht, einige theoretische und methodische Fragen, die in einer größeren Studie zu Sport, Gender und Sexualität entstanden sind, zu erforschen. Die Studie zielt darauf ab, unterschiedliche akademische Traditionen der Geschichte, Literatur und Gender Studies über ein gemeinsames Medium – den Roman – auf kreative Weise zusammenzubringen. Meine grundlegende Annahme ist, dass Wissen durch fiktionale Darstellungen wie Tom Browns Schooldays (1857), This Sporting Life (1960) und Fever Pitch ([1992] 2000) sowohl entwickelt als auch aufgedeckt werden kann. Die Fragen, die der Artikel aufwirft, sind: Was sind die erkenntnistheoretischen Konsequenzen des Lesens von Sportgeschichten über fiktive Darstellungen? Wie könnten wir über ein Lesen von Sportromanen die gelebte Realität historischer Akteure theoretisieren? Wie können fiktionale Texte neben eher traditionellen Archivalien gelesen werden? Ich behaupte, dass der Roman Zugang zu theoretischem Denken erlaubt, das eine Untersuchung menschlicher Gegebenheiten wie der Notwendigkeit für Phantasie, Intuition und Mythos, ermöglicht, was andere Archivalien nicht aufdecken könnten, folglich bereichert er damit unser Verständnis der Vergangenheit.

本文旨在探讨一些在运动、性别和性方面广泛研究的理论和方法论问题，并试图通过共同的媒介—小说，以一种创造性的方式将历史、文学和性别，这些不同的学术传统，汇集在一起。作者的基本假设是，知识是可以通过虚构性的叙述，如汤姆·布郎的《学生时代》（1857年）、《如此运动生涯》和《极度狂热》（[1992] 2000）等文学作品来产生和揭示出来。文章提出的问题是：通过虚构的叙述方式来阅读运动历史的认识论含义是什么？我们该如何通过阅读运动题材的小说来对存在于现实生活中的历史行动者们建构理论？虚构的文本如何能配合更多的传统档案材料来被阅读？作者认为这类运动题材的小说触及了理论方面的思考，能检验人的境况，比如幻想的需要、直觉和虚构的人或事，而这些在其它的档案材料中可能是不被揭示得，因而使得我们对过去的理解更为丰富。

Esse artigo procura explorar algumas questões teóricas e metodológicas que foram levantas em um estudo mais amplo sobre esporte, gênero e sexualidade. O estudo tem como objetivo aproximar, de formas criativas, diferentes tradições acadêmicas de história, literatura e estudos de gênero através de um meio comum – o romance. Meu pressuposto fundacional é que o conhecimento pode ser gerado e descoberto através de representações ficcionais tais quais Tom Brown's Schooldays (1857), This Sporting Life (1960) e Fever Pitch ([1992] 2000). As questões propostas pelo artigo são: quais são as implicações epistemológicas de ler histórias esportivas através de representações ficcionais? Como podemos teorizar sobre as realidades vividas por atores históricos através da leitura de romances de esporte? Como textos ficcionais podem ser lidos em conjunto com material arquivístico? Argumento que o romance permite acesso ao pensamento teórico que permite um exame de condições humanas, como a necessidade de fantasia, intuição e mito, o que outros materiais arquivísticos não podem revelar, enriquecendo assim nosso entendimento do passado.

本稿は、スポーツ、ジェンダー、セクシュアリティに関するより広い研究の中で生まれたいくつかの理論的方法論的問題を扱う。本研究の目的は、歴史学、文学、及びジェンダー研究という異なる学術的伝統を、小説という共通の媒体を通じて創造的に統合することにある。『トム・ブラウンの学校生活』(1857年)、『孤独の報酬』(1960年)、『ぼくのプレミア・ライフ』(1992年)といったフィクション表象を通じて、知が生み出され、また明らかにされうるというのが、筆者の根本的な考えである。「フィクション表象を通じてスポーツの物語を読むことの認識論的含意とは何か？」「スポーツ小説を読むことを通して、歴史上の人物たちの生きた現実についてどのように理論化することができるか？」「どうすればフィクションをより伝統的な文書資料と並べて読むことができるか？」本稿が提起するのはこうした疑問である。小説は、文書資料では明らかにできないファンタジー、直感そして神話の必要性といった人間としての条件を検討させる理論的思考へのアクセスを可能にし、そうすることで我々の過去についての理解をより豊かなものにする。これが筆者の主張である。

Keywords:

• fiction
• sport history
• epistemology
• historical archive
• literature

Keywords:

• fiction
• histoire du sport
• épistémologie
• archives historiques
• littérature

Keywords:

• ficción
• historia del deporte
• epistemología
• material de archivo
• literatura

Keywords:

• Belletristik
• Sportgeschichte
• Erkenntnistheorie
• historische Archive
• Literatur

Keywords:

• 小说
• 运动历史
• 认识论
• 历史档案
• 文献

Keywords:

• ficção
• história do esporte
• epistemologia
• arquivo histórico
• literatura

Keywords:

• フィクション
• スポーツ史
• 認識論
• 歴史文書
• 文学

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Lynne Segal and Heike Bauer as supervisors of my PhD thesis from which this article has been developed. I would also like to thank the participants at the British Society of Sport History conference, held in Glasgow in September 2012 for their comments on the paper I gave and which helped me to develop further my ideas.

Notes

^1. ‘Blackadder’ is a British satirical sitcom that was set in different periods of history. The fourth season, aired in 2000, entitled ‘Blackadder Goes Forth’, was set in the First World War.

^2. ‘Birdsong’ (1993) is the name of a novel by Sebastian Faulks and is also set in the First World War.

^3. Booth, Field:Truth and Fiction, 69.

^4. Ibid., 2.

^5. Ibid., 69.

^6. Hill, “British Sports History,” 3.

^7. Detweiler, “Games and Play in Modern American Fiction,” 51–2.

^8. Holland, “Mind and the Book,” 1998.

^9. Messenger, Sport and the Spirit of Play; Oriard, Dreaming of Heroes; Umphlett, Achievement of American Sport Literature.

^10. Hill and Williams, “Sport and Literature,” 127–329.

^11. Halberstam, Female Masculinity, 10.

^12. Booth, Field: Truth and Fiction, 251.

^13. Worth, “Art and Epistemology,” 2

^14. Ibid. (Italics in the original)

^15. Robert, “Origins of the Novel” in McKeon, Theory of the Novel, 160.

^16. Johnes, “Texts, Audiences, and Postmodernism,” 127

^17. Ibid.

^18. For a text on ‘reader response’ theory, see Radway, Reading the Romance. Radway discovered that readers of romantic novels may not read them to learn anything much about romance but they did often claim to learn about history or geography from them. For a critique of Radway's methodology, see Connor, English Novel in History, 1950–1995, 20–1.

^19. Gathorne-Hardy, Public School Phenomenon.

^22. Rimmer, Rambles Round Rugby, 9.

^20. Anon, “Tom Brown's Schooldays,” The Times, London, October 9, 1857, col. 1.

^21. The Author of “Lilliput Lectures”. “Thomas Hughes”. Good Things: The English Boy's and Girl's Magazine, July 1, 1877, 40.

^23. Blaikie, “American Bodies,” 770. Cited in Lucas, “Victorian ‘Muscular Christianity’”.

^24. Camp, Walter Camp's Book of College Sports, 88.

^25. Saul and Kelly, “Christians, Brahmins, and Other Sporting Fellows,” 236.

^26. Chandos, Boys Together, 289.

^27. Cotton Minchin, Our Public Schools, 210.

^28. Bristow, Empire Boys, 60.

^29. The Clarendon Commission (1861–1864) investigated the upper echelons of the English Public School system. Although the report had little by way of immediate effect, its longer-term impact in helping to entrench the privileged status of the public schools is not to be underestimated.

^32. Freud, “Family Romances” in McKeon, Theory of the Novel, 157–8.

^30. Ricoeur, “Function of Fiction in Shaping Reality,” 126.

^31. Robert, “Origins of the Novel” in McKeon, Theory of the Novel, 170.

^33. Robert, “Origins of the Novel” in McKeon, Theory of the Novel, 171.

^34. See, for example, Holland, Holland's Guide to Psychoanalytic Psychology; Kiell, Psychoanalysis, Psychology, and Literature; Natoli, Psychological Perspectives on Literature.

^35. Hutcheon, Poetics of Postmodernism, 110.

^36. Ibid., 89.

^37. Templeton, “Sociology and Literature,” 24–5 (Italics in the original).

^38. Hutcheon, Poetics of Postmodernism, 111.

^39. Boyd, “Course of True Life | Books | The Observer,” The Observer, November 1, 1998, http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/1998/nov/01/fiction.reviews (accessed April 11, 2012).

^40. Connor, English Novel in History, 132 (Italics in the original).

^41. Worth, “Art and Epistemology,” 2.

^42. Templeton, “Sociology and Literature,” 24.

^43. See Carroll, “Wheel of Virtue,” 3–26.

^44. Oriard, “Linguistic Turn Into Sport History” in Phillips, Deconstructing Sport History, 79.

^45. Gourgouris, Does Literature Think? 25.

^46. Ibid., 29. For original, see Bergson and Andison, Creative Mind, 180.

^47. de Certeau, Heterologies, 219.

^48. Gourgouris, Does Literature Think?, 31.

^49. Ibid., 44.

^50. Ibid., 45.

^51. Hill, Sport and the Literary Imagination, 131.