TY - JOUR
T1 - Competing discourses
T2 - Narratives of a Fragmented Self, Manliness and Rugby Union
AU - Pringle, Richard
PY - 2001/1/1
Y1 - 2001/1/1
N2 - In this article I argue that sports of violence, such as rugby union, can provide a discursive space that allows for production and resistance to dominant discourses of manliness. I do so, in part, by presenting narratives of self to reveal how competing discourses surrounded my youth participation in rugby union in a manner that made it difficult to maintain a coherent sense of self. Through these narratives, I hope that readers can empathize with the tensions and contradictions I faced as a “rugby boy'. In addition, I draw on Foucaultian concepts to illustrate how the discourses that initially helped constitute my sense of self also provided a starting point for my eventual resistance against hypermasculine values. In this sense, I highlight how relationships between discourse, power and subjectivities are unstable.
AB - In this article I argue that sports of violence, such as rugby union, can provide a discursive space that allows for production and resistance to dominant discourses of manliness. I do so, in part, by presenting narratives of self to reveal how competing discourses surrounded my youth participation in rugby union in a manner that made it difficult to maintain a coherent sense of self. Through these narratives, I hope that readers can empathize with the tensions and contradictions I faced as a “rugby boy'. In addition, I draw on Foucaultian concepts to illustrate how the discourses that initially helped constitute my sense of self also provided a starting point for my eventual resistance against hypermasculine values. In this sense, I highlight how relationships between discourse, power and subjectivities are unstable.
KW - discourse
KW - Foucault
KW - masculinities
KW - narratives of self
KW - rugby union
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84998186640&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/101269001036004004
DO - 10.1177/101269001036004004
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84998186640
SN - 1012-6902
VL - 36
SP - 425
EP - 439
JO - International Review for the Sociology of Sport
JF - International Review for the Sociology of Sport
IS - 4
ER -