Antecedent and Aftermath A History of Synchronized Swimming

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Abstract

This article revisits a controversial 1998 Journal of Sport History (JSH) article by Synthia Sydnor titled “A History of Synchronized Swimming.” It focuses on interrelated aspects of selected academic texts both hostile and sympathetic to the 1998 article and exegesis of the theory, method, biography, and scholarship on which the article was based, underscoring that the composition, theory, and methodology of the article were influenced by beloved people, places, and new and older canonical thought that explored form, genre, and distribution of historical scholarship. The present article sets into historical and cultural context the provocative 1998 article; the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; and the academic milieu of sport studies in the northern hemisphere from the 1970s through the early 2000s. From its 1998 publication onward, the JSH article was studied as an example of deconstruction, postmodern social theory, and the cultural and linguistic turn in scholarship. Some reactions from academia and popular culture to the 1998 piece from over the years are sampled. The 1998 work is summarized as encompassing facets of the avant-garde, postmodern theory, and modern humanities with intentional criticism, meaning, and narrative.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)90-109
Number of pages20
JournalJournal of Sport History
Volume51
Issue number1
StatePublished - Mar 2024

Keywords

  • avant-garde
  • modernism
  • postmodernism
  • sport history
  • synchronized swimming

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Cultural Studies
  • History

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