ABSTRACT
As I write this chapter, I find myself in the curious position of having been invited to submit a chapter on ‘text/representation’ for a handbook on physical cultural studies (PCS). Having been part of conversations regarding this emergent, or perhaps not so emergent (see Ingham, 1997), area of scholarly inquiry and disciplinary perspective, I am somewhat aware of the central tenants, debates, and positions of those scholars who identify with PCS. I myself, however, do not overtly identify as a PCS scholar, although the theoretical, epistemological, and methodological frameworks of which I have been trained and utilize have certain shared affinities and sensibilities with those of PCS. My hesitance at self-identification is not due to any outright rejection of PCS, rather it resides in uncertainty regarding what is PCS, what is novel in the PCS project, and the intellectual, political, and professional risks and/or benefits in claiming an identity of ‘PCS scholar’.
