Who the Hell Was That? Stories, Bodies and Actions in the World

Abstract

This article explores a two-way relationship between stories and the experiential actions of bodies in the world. Through an autoethnographic approach, the article presents a series of interlinked story fragments in an effort to show and evoke a feel for the ways in which stories, bodies, and actions influence and shape each other over time. It offers some reflections on the experiences the stories portray from the perspective of a social constructionist conception of narrative theory and suggest that while stories exert a powerful influence on the actions of our bodies, our bodies intrude on or ‘talk back’ to this process because bodies have an existence beyond stories.

Keywords:

• autoethnography
• bisexual
• embodiment
• gay
• identity
• narrative
• story

Acknowledgements

I am indebted to my friend and colleague Kitrina Douglas for the stories and conversations we have shared over the past ten years; thank you for providing the support I needed to complete this work. I also thank Brendan Stone for his sensitive and perceptive comments during the development of this piece, as well as the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive responses to an earlier version of this article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

David Carless

David Carless, PhD, is currently a Senior Research Fellow at Leeds Metropolitan University, UK. His research focuses on using a variety of narrative and arts-based approaches to explore identity, mental health, and psychological well-being in and through physical activity and sport.