Escaping the past? The cultural turn and language in sport history

Abstract

The cultural turn in sport history, and the accompanying shift from the study of sport as a social practice towards the interpretation of sporting cultures, ushered in a healthy new interest in the social and political power of language. However, notwithstanding closer attention from sport culture historians to the way their subjects use language (discourse, texts, narratives) to constitute, transmit and transform culture, few reflect critically on how they represent their own works. Sport culture historians continue to label such reflection a philosophical issue rather than one integral to the craft of history. This article suggests that sport historians could profit from reflecting explicitly on how they represent history; such reflection lies at the very heart of what Munslow (1997) calls ‘deconstructionist history’. At the very least, more explicit discussion about their own approaches, and inclusion of contemporary debates about language in culture and history, would help sport historians garner intellectual credibility for their field. At present, however, the disciplinary objectives of traditional empirical history continue to exert a vice-like grip on the field which even those who promote the language aspects of sporting culture seem unable to escape.

Keywords:

• Deconstructionist history
• Discourse
• Language
• Narrative
• Sport history
• Reconstructionism
• Text