A Memoir and Exegesis
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Footy Sheilas: A Memoir and Exegesis By Catherine Farrell Submitted in fulfilment for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Swinburne University of Technology, 2016 Abstract The Project is about multigenerational fans of Australian Rules Football (AFL). The artefact element of this PhD is a memoir focussed upon how a family of fans, predominately female, have followed the Collingwood Football Club over five generations. It involves humour, self-insights, and visual and verbal ethnography. It is a family archive of narratives that are distinctly Australian-based and produced with an Australian humour and narrator’s voice. Above all it provides a dynamic window into the ways that Australians follow a national football code with particular emphasis upon a single family. The academic framework of this artefact is an exegesis that situates the scholarship within discussion and debate in the literature, and also identifies and addresses a gap in the literature about women football fans with a mutigenerational commitment to an Australian sporting club. A reflexive methodology connects the artefact and exegesis. The creative and analytic processes have led to the artefact evolving from ‘data’ into an artistic representation of the key themes as they have emerged through the analysis. Together the two elements of this project ‘Footy Sheilas’ develop scholarship about narrative discourse, autoethnography and a social identity approach as applied to football fandom and family narratives about it. ii Acknowledgements Firstly I would like to acknowledge and sincerely thank my primary supervisor Professor Pam Green for the many years she spent believing in me and encouraging me to keep going during the difficult times. Her continuing support and advice has been greatly appreciated. I would also like to acknowledge and thank my secondary supervisors Dr Christine Sinclair and Professor Josie Arnold. In particular, Dr Sinclair’s ongoing advice during the crafting of the memoir was invaluable while Professor Arnold invested a significant amount of time in building my confidence, offering advice and insisting that my work was worthy. Professor Arnold has been a wonderful mentor and I am proud to also call her my friend. I would like to acknowledge my mother Sue and my sister Lisa. Our commitment to the Collingwood Football Club knows no bounds and we have spent many happy and hilarious years together at the football. I am so pleased that our family football stories have now been commited to paper. Finally, I would like to thank my family for their support and patience. My husband Tom and children Todd and Olivia not only supported my studies but were very willing to be part of my research. They are my world and words cannot express how much their encouragement and belief in me has meant. iii Declaration by Candidate I declare that the the content for examinable outcome as a PhD by artefact and exegesis contains no material which has been accepted for the award to the candidate of any other degree or diploma, except where due reference is made in the text of the examinable outcome; to the best of my knowledge contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the text of the examinable outcome; and, where work is based on joint research or publications, discloses the relative contributions of the respective workers or authors. The content of this artefact and exegesis was proof-read by professional editor Dr Rachel Le Rossignol. The work undertaken was in accordance with Current Australian Standards for Editing Practice and restricted to Standard D (Language and Illustrations) and Standard E (Completeness and Consistency). No advice was given on Standard C (Substance and Structure). Signed: Dated: 26th February, 2016 iv Footy Sheilas An Exegesis by Cathy Farrell 172 Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................. ii Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................... iii Declaration by Candidate ............................................................................................. iv An Exegesis by Cathy Farrell ....................................................................................... 172 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 175 Review of Selected Australian Football Literature ................................................... 177 Historical Accounts................................................................................................ 177 Insider Accounts .................................................................................................... 178 Football Fans.......................................................................................................... 179 Section 1: A Family Narrative ................................................................................... 184 The Memoir: A Background .................................................................................. 184 Self-reflexive narratives ......................................................................................... 185 Identity ................................................................................................................... 189 Memoir................................................................................................................... 191 Life Writing ........................................................................................................... 192 Creative non fiction ............................................................................................... 195 Section 2: Crafting the memoir: Setting up the lens ................................................. 197 The narrator’s voice ............................................................................................... 197 Visual narratives and memory ............................................................................... 199 The non-linear narrative......................................................................................... 202 Conveying humour ................................................................................................ 203 Generational narratives .......................................................................................... 206 Section 3: Method, Methodology and Theoretical Lens ........................................... 208 173 Practice-led research .............................................................................................. 208 Autoethnography ................................................................................................... 210 A Social Identity Approach ................................................................................... 217 Section 4: Discoveries – What the Memoir Revealed ............................................... 220 Storytelling............................................................................................................. 220 Football and Family Rituals ................................................................................... 230 Communities, Supporters and Tribes..................................................................... 243 Section Five: Contribution to Knowledge and Conclusion ....................................... 254 Personal Reflections .............................................................................................. 255 References ................................................................................................................. 261 Appendix I – Ethics Clearance .................................................................................. 280 174 Introduction This PhD project is presented as a creative artefact in the form of a memoir that records the stories of a multigenerational family of predominantly female Australian Football fans and an accompanying exegesis that situates the scholarship within discussion and debate in the literature. The project identifies and addresses a gap in the literature about women football fans with a mutigenerational commitment to an Australian sporting club. A reflexive methodology connects the artefact and exegesis. The creative and analytic processes have led to the artefact evolving from ‘data’ into an artistic representation of the key themes as they have emerged through the analysis. The emergent themes include family storytelling and its role in building and reinforcing a social identity, the practice of rituals and tribal behaviour. Together the two elements of this project ‘Footy Sheilas: A Memoir and Exegesis’, develop scholarship about narrative discourse and autoethnography. It takes a social identity approach as applied to football fandom and the associated family narratives. In this exegesis, I begin with a brief review of selected literature on Australian Football and its fans. In Section One, I present an overview of the development of my creative artefact (memoir) and the relationship of the artefact and exegesis, and discuss the overarching framework of practice-led research (PLR). I explore self-reflexive narratives and briefly introduce a number of key terms, such as identity and community. Following this is a discussion of life writing and creative non-fiction: as part of this section, I enter into the academic discourse on memoir. I draw