Performance Studies, Sport, and Affect in the Twenty-First Century
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Performance Studies, Sport, and Affect in the Twenty-First Century by Kelsey Blair M.A., University of British Columbia, 2014 M.A., University of Toronto, 2010 B.A., University of British Columbia, 2007 Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of English Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences © Kelsey Blair 2019 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY Spring 2019 Copyright in this work rests with the author. Please ensure that any reproduction or re-use is done in accordance with the relevant national copyright legislation. Approval Name: Kelsey Blair Degree: Doctor of Philosophy Title: Performance Studies, Sport, and Affect in the Twenty-First Century Examining Committee: Chair: Clint Burnham Professor Peter Dickinson Senior Supervisor Professor Dara Culhane Supervisor Professor Coleman Nye Supervisor Assistant Professor Ann Travers Internal Examiner Associate Professor Department of Sociology and Anthropology Susan Bennett External Examiner Professor Department of English University of Calgary Date Defended/Approved: April 16, 2019 ii Abstract Richard Schechner, one of the founders of performance studies, urges scholars to expand their conceptualization of performance to include a broad spectrum of framed and/or displayed human behaviours. While this call to action has strongly influenced the interdisciplinary impulse of performance studies and prompted important cross- disciplinary investigations between performance genres such as theatre, dance, performance art, political performance, ritual, and play, sport has remained under- theorized in the field. In this project, I begin to fill this gap by approaching the practices, activities, and events of twenty-first century sport through the lens of performance studies. To do so, I propose a series of critical concepts for analyzing the patterning of behavior and the sequencing of action during sport performances: performance genre, configuration, formation, and complex event. Applying these terms to the analysis of sporting practices, activities, and events, I illustrate how each concept enables a rigorous analysis of the socio-political effects of the patterning of behavior in performance occasions. Ultimately, I contend that analyzing sports not only fills a gap in the field of performance studies, it also reveals how sport performances both shape and are shaped by their socio-political contexts. Keywords: performance studies; sport; affect theory; women in sport; embodied practice. iii Dedication For my parents Jim Blair and Joan Blair. iv Acknowledgements Completing a doctoral degree is a team effort, and I am exceptionally grateful to my community of diverse “team members.” Thank you to my supervisor, Peter Dickinson, whose thoughtful intellectual engagements, humour, and unparalleled editing, administrative, and bureaucratic skills provided the perfect balance of space and support, helping me navigate the intellectual and practical elements of the degree at every step. I am also grateful to my committee members Dara Culhane and Coleman Nye, who influenced the work and my growth as a scholar by offering suggestions and provocations that were timely, eloquent, and rigorous. Additionally, I am thankful for the community of scholars, thinkers, and administrators in the Department of English at Simon Fraser University. Thanks, in particular, to Ronda Arab, Paul Budra, Diana Solomon, Carolyn Lesjak, Matthew Hussey, Jeff Derkson, Betty Schellenberg, and the tremendous graduate administrator Christa Gruninger for their intellectual, administrative, and professional support at varying points throughout the degree. I would also like to acknowledge the generous financial support I received from the SFU Department of English and the SFU Faculty of Arts and Sciences, as well as my doctoral fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. I would also like to acknowledge Taylor & Francis and The International Journal of Sport History for granting permission to reprint portions of the article “The 2012 Olympic Badminton Scandal: Match-Fixing, Code of Conduct Documents, and Women’s Sport.” I am incredibly fortunate that my team extended well-beyond the walls of a single department or institution. I am both indebted to and filled with the most expansive gratitude for Jocelyn Pitsch, who has given me so much: an extra set of eyes, a shoulder to lean on, a rigorous intellectual mind, a great deal of laughter, and so much love. Carolyn Richard has graciously leant me her meticulous editing skills and critical eye on multiple occasions and has also sustained me with a seemingly incongruous combination of dark humour and gentle care. Kirsty Johnston has not only supported me intellectually v and professionally, she has also consistently inspired me through her unique combination of rigour, wit, and boundless compassion. Selena Couture, Julia Henderson, Claire Carolan, Sandra Chamberlain-Snider, and Katrina Dunn have been incredible collaborators, supporters, and friends, and have modelled the quietly subversive possibilities of women working together and supporting one another. I am also thankful to Claire Robson, Eury Chang, Kandice Sharren, David Weston, Jorji Temple, Sandra Lockwood, Christine Mazumdar, Megan Johnson, and Ted Harrison for the conversation, laughter, and support. Thank you also to my network of actual former coaches and teammates, who have always cheered my endeavours both on the court and off: Shawn White, Sue Kennedy, Deb Huband, Emily Beers, Erin Allan, Ashley Dutchak, and Janet Hatfield. Finally, I am so tremendously thankful to my parents, Jim Blair and Joan Blair. Throughout this degree, you’ve read drafts, talked me through ideas, laughed with me, laughed at me, supported me in every way imaginable, and, most importantly, reminded me that love is an action, and when it is performed with the compassion, generosity, and selflessness that you both enact everyday, it can subtly but radically change the world. It has mine. vi Table of Contents Approval ............................................................................................................................. ii Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iii Dedication .......................................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................. v Table of Contents .............................................................................................................. vii List of Tables ..................................................................................................................... ix List of Figures ..................................................................................................................... x Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 1 1.1. The Study of Sport in the Field of Performance Studies .......................................... 2 1.2. What is Sport? ........................................................................................................... 6 1.3. Theoretical Approach and Key Terms .................................................................... 12 1.4. Scope and Method .................................................................................................. 15 1.5. Chapter Summaries ................................................................................................. 18 Chapter 1. The Performance Genre of Sport and the Case of the 2012 Women’s Olympic Badminton Tournament ....................................................................... 23 1.1. Performance Genres as Assemblages ..................................................................... 25 1.2. The Performance Genre of Sport ............................................................................ 27 1.3. The 2012 Olympic Badminton Scandal .................................................................. 36 1.4. Fair Play, Regulatory Rules, and Code of Conduct Documents in Sport ............... 39 1.5. The Role of Gender ................................................................................................. 44 Chapter 2. Chapter Two: Configurations, Formations, and the Vertical Plane in Women’s Basketball ............................................................................................. 49 2.1. Configurations: Shaping Performances .................................................................. 50 2.2. The General Configuration of Basketball and the Emergence of Women’s Basketball .......................................................................................................................... 53 2.3. The Located Activity Configuration of Modified Women’s Basketball in the United States ..................................................................................................................... 58 2.4. The Structuring of Practice Through Formation ..................................................... 64 2.5. The Formation of Women’s Basketball in the Early Twenty-First Century in Canada............................................................................................................................... 67 Chapter 3. The Patterning of Audience Behaviours