Spatializing the (Im)Proper Subject

Abstract

This article considers the interface between the (psychic and material) construction of subjectivity and the geographies of a set of physical education and recreation locker rooms. Using Julia Kristeva's (1982) Powers of Horror: An Essay in Abjection, the author examines the discursive and psychic constructions of subjectivity that take place in locker rooms. Although it is not possible to get inside people's unconscious, nevertheless, the author suggests that there is something going on in locker rooms that sustains the psychic and material construction of the subject. The author illustrates that the production of subjectivity is learned through, and depends on, a process of abjection. She suggests that paying attention to the “psychogeographies” of subjects and spaces offers a unique way in which to explore how we engage with the fragile boundaries and borders of subjectivity and the interspace(s) of the abject in sport and physical culture.