writing the body in motion

Reviewed by Adrian Markle

14 august 2018 archive

The newest major entry in sport literature criticism comes with a decidedly Canadian slant. Angie Abdou and Jamie Dopp's Writing the Body in Motion features emerging and established Canadian academics writing on Canadian sport literature that centers on a variety of sports, though the most common, of course, is hockey.

Indeed, hockey occupies the place in this anthology that might otherwise be occupied by baseball, if this collection were American, with six of the eleven chapters taking place on the ice. But this hockey-heavy program does not limit this collection to being purely of interest in Canada, as "the best sports literature isn't really about sports" (quotes contributor Fred Mason of W.P. Kinsella), and Writing the Body in Motion's varied approaches has something to offer students and appreciators of sport literature anywhere.

The anthology features chapters on hockey, as previously noted, though it's worth mentioning that the selected hockey texts are quite varied—the fiction selections range from Wayne Johnson's humorous The Divine Ryans to the profoundly serious Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese, and the poetry selections draw on various historical figures and events. The anthology also contains chapters on swimming in Samantha Warwick's Sage Island, mountaineering with Thomas Warton's Icefields, running with Alexander MacLeod's short story "Miracle Mile," wrestling and swimming both in Angie Abdou's The Bone Cage, and baseball, with a chapter on W.P. Kinsella's Shoeless Joe opening the anthology—an olive branch to our American friends, perhaps?

And the critical approaches are even more varied. Two chapters analyze the literature through Joseph Campbell's monomyth. One uses historical allusion to theorize an "anti-" sport narrative. Two read from feminist perspectives (one more historical, the other more structural). One comes from an ecocritical angle and pairs it quite interestingly with an analysis of the relationship between spirituality and the scientific mind. Another hockey centered chapter interprets the arcs of protagonists in the work of Bill Gaston, in particular The Good Body, through the spiritual journey of Zen Buddhism. Other chapters explore the texts through Tolkien's ideas on magic and realism, Jose Zuniga's seminal Homo Ludens and the difference between work and play, conceptual foundations of identity and myth and the relationship between them, and the potential two-way relationship between fiction and historical context.

There is incredible variety of literature and critical approach for such a short volume. It is well selected, and the chapters are insightful and interesting, written and organized in such a way that would allow them to be appreciated by readers with any level of familiarity with sport literature criticism. That being said, nothing is perfect, and there are a few areas in which I see room for further development.

For instance, only two chapters focus on poetry, and while both are good chapters, they share some obvious similarities: they're both about well-known, critically acclaimed volumes about hockey, and they both take a similar approach—largely historical readings without a strongly defined central criticism (at least compared to some of the other chapters)—which makes them feel like they are performing the same role in the anthology.

There are also a number of sports that are popular in Canada (and elsewhere) that feel unrepresented in the anthology (though that may sometimes be because of a lack of suitable creative work—we're a small country at the end of the day). There's no mention of football (either European or American), no lacrosse, curling, or rugby—and almost no combat sports (The Bone Cage is partly about a wrestler).

What I think these criticisms have in common is that they represent things the book could have included—greater variety of poetic approaches; greater variety of sports; and while we're at it, something from the French or culturally Asian parts of Canada—which I take as a sign of quality; these criticisms are not highlighting anything like a perceived lack of quality, they're ultimately just asking for more content (which makes my hearing that they're already considering a second volume very welcome news).

Besides its Canadian-ness, one more aspect that makes Writing the Body in Motion a unique and modern entry into the sport literature criticism canon is that it is free. The book is available to buy, obviously, and I recommend it—I've already begun to wear out my copy for research and teaching purposes—but full PDFs are available on the Athabasca University Press website, which makes it easy for lecturers to evaluate and for students to access.

Writing the Body in Motion is a distinctly (but in no way limitingly) Canadian anthology that explores the relationship between sport and society, sport and culture, sport and the environment, and sport and identity, among other things. Though it features more hockey than anthologies from south of the border, it is a well balanced and accessible resource for students or appreciators of sport literature from any country. While I did note a few areas that may be improved upon in future volumes, they aren't issues with the chapters themselves, and are ultimately just calls for more. This is a great resource, and we'd all benefit from more like it.

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