organisms who, individually and socially, lead storied lives” (p. 2). Yet,
storytelling in the context of this research and specifically with agendas associated with avoiding inequitable power-relations in research while maximising
prospective audience engagement, is far from a simple act. As a researcher and participant, I found it difficult for lived experience to always be organised into long storied accounts. Like Austin (2005) when discussing autoethnography, to fully capture “the multiplicities and tensions of identity,” she found that she needed to consider the use of “more innovative and creative forms of
presentation” (p. 25). Two methodological agendas were closely tied at this point: the intention that readers would be able to vicariously share participants‟
experiences and emotions, and for participants to not be restricted in their telling and re-telling of their lived experiences. In addressing these issues I drew from Richardson (1997), who discusses not limiting a story to one narrative. She says:
everyday life experiences are not organised around the long
biographical account, the epic poem or the life history. Rather, people tell stories about events in their lives; the meaning of the event
changes through the invocation of different implied narratives. Not all events, further, are stuffed into the same narrative. A life may have a „plot line,‟ but not everything lived – nor everything of import to the person – fits neatly into a „plot.‟ We are not characters. Our lives are not morals. They are not even ethnographic narratives. (p. 181)
My approach, therefore, was to generate and support the other participants in generating a series of vignettes, each centring on what from a participant and a research perspective, could be deemed key events or experiences. As described above, the process of achieving depth and detail relating to each vignette was
57 progressive, collaborative and negotiated. In developing and organising the vignettes for publication, I returned to the issues of voice (seeking representation to „the swimmer voice‟ and „the body voice‟ in and through the vignettes) and the matter of audience engagement. I also grappled with the representation of my own voice as researcher, not only participant. A theatrical mode of presentation was identified as offering a means of addressing these multiple agendas in writing and representation of data as it conveys a sense of realism that prose ultimately could not achieve. My desire to represent the stories of the participants in this form was also fuelled by the distinct lack of representation of swimmers‟ lived experiences in literature. Specifically, this format would give the stories the „centre stage‟ that it was felt they deserved, enabling me to be represented in writing as both a participant in and narrator of „the production‟ and hopefully, present the data in a manner which would achieve a high degree of audience engagement.
In this thesis, the vignettes have thus been organised to collectively form three Acts of a play that reflect the central research theme of body pedagogies. The first and second Act in the play doubles as a prequel13, revealing the three main characters at the time of their participation in the Australian swimming culture as adolescents. For all of the actors, this part of the production involves retrospective recall of and reflection upon events that respectively occurred for the participants in the 1970s, 80s and 90s. The third Act in the play represents a
sequel14, a continuing narrative of Act one and Act two, composed by the
participants as adults and focusing upon their present day (2009/2010) lives and feelings relating to the theme of body pedagogies, which the play is based on. At the beginning of each Act, a prologue features, providing the audience with a preface, a foreshadowing, some background information relating to the three actors and their lives around which the Act is based. The Acts are consciously staged as the actors‟ own production, seeking to maximise their authoritative voices. The storylines told by each of the actors are their recollections of Australian swimming culture, as lived and experienced by them, as adolescents and in present day life. As the narrator, I am able to provide further insights by
13
Prequel: “a work (as a novel or a play) whose story precedes that of an earlier work” (Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, 2009).
14
Sequel: “subsequent development, the next instalment (as of a speech or story);
especially: a literary, cinematic, or televised work continuing the course of a story begun in a preceding one” (Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, 2009).
58 utilizing my voice/s – reflective and analytical voice, broadening the re-telling of the stories by at times revealing my own voice and feelings within (and in
response to) the other swimmers‟ [actors] stories.
The vignettes that shape each Act have a number of distinctive features. They capture language occurring from multiple dimensions along with the feelings, thoughts, tensions, and inner monologue/s of the participants, with the intention of provoking reader emotion [evocation]. Each vignette seeks to provide new insights into the life of a swimmer and also as an adult woman [post-
swimming] with the use of vernacular language with the intention of provoking dramatic potential. The main force, focus and tension of each vignette is created through the actors' dialogue, and there is far more to this than merely the
expression of achievement or disappointment as a swimmer. Relationships, inner thoughts and feelings are expressed through the language of hope, fear, friendship, fantasy and realism that sees the swimmers‟ resourcefulness in overcoming
frustration, disappointment and failure to meet expectations of themselves and those closest to them in the Australian swimming culture (coach/parents/other swimmers). The intention is that the reader will be able to feel empathy with the swimmers, relating to and in a sense „(re)living,‟ while not enduring, their experience. The stories were intended to allow readers to momentarily „become the body,‟ „be the body‟ of the participants, whether it is the adolescent elite swimmer body, the comeback body, the 30–40 year old body or the performing
body. Thus, resonance is immediate and direct“providing [sic] powerful access to
the uniquely human experience of time in five sociologically significant ways: the everyday; the autobiographical; the biographical; the cultural; and what I term the collective story” (Richardson, 1990, p. 22).