Negotiating Discipline: A Foucauldian Analysis of Narrative Strategies in High-Performance Sports

Abstract: 

This paper explores the narratives that shape the identity and well-being of high-performance athletes. It examines the desirability of alternative narratives (the growth narrative, the relational narrative, and the restitution narrative) over the performance narrative by situating existing narrative research in sports psychology within Foucault’s framework of disciplinary power. First, the analysis argues that while the performance narrative directly responds to the power relations of high-performance sports, it is problematic because it risks producing overly compliant docile bodies. Then, the paper considers how three alternative narratives utilize the enabling potential of disciplinary power to help athletes reorient themselves and enhance agency. In doing so, this paper aims to understand and clarify how athletes strategically employ narratives to negotiate the self within a high-pressure athletic context.