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An unnerving otherness: English nationalism and Rusedski’s smile

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Abstract

In view of scholarly work that has explored the socio-psycho significance of national performativity, the body and the “other,” this article critically analyses newspaper representations of the Canadian-born British tennis player Greg Rusedski. Drawing on Lacanian interpretations of the body, it illustrates how Rusedski’s media framing centered on a particular feature of his body – his “smile.” In doing so, we detail how Rusedski’s “post-imperial” Otherness – conceived as a form of “extimacy” (extimité) – complicated any clear delineation between “us” and “them,” positing instead a dialectical understanding of the splits, voids and contradictions that underscore the national “us.”

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. A213 Collegiate Hall, Collegiate Crescent, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, S10 2BP, UK

    Jack Black

  2. Department of Sport Science, Douglas College, New Westminster, Canada

    Robert J. Lake

  3. School of Events, Tourism and Hospitality Management, Leeds Beckett University, Leeds, UK

    Thomas Fletcher

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  1. Jack Black
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Black, J., Lake, R.J. & Fletcher, T. An unnerving otherness: English nationalism and Rusedski’s smile. Psychoanal Cult Soc 26, 452–472 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41282-021-00235-3

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