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“To have or not to have a boyfriend?” Large identities in small stories

  • Vasiliki Saloustrou

    Vasiliki Saloustrou is a PhD candidate in Language, Discourse & Communication at King’s College London. She has studied Linguistics at the University of Patras (Greece), and she also holds an MA in “Language and Cultural Diversity” from King’s College London. Her research interests include im/politeness theory, narrative analysis, discourse analysis, and identity analysis. Address for correspondence: School of Education, Communication & Society, King’s College London, Waterloo Bridge Wing, Waterloo, London, UK. Email: vasiliki.saloustrou@kcl.ac.uk

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Published/Copyright: April 16, 2020

Abstract

In this paper, I draw on recent work on small stories that has been proposed as a counter-move to the dominant paradigm of big stories. Small stories are fragmented, heavily co-authored and open-ended tellings, and have proved a prime site for the joint drafting of identity positions in concrete interactional sites. The context in which the use of small stories is examined in this study is a group of three 20-year-old Greek women, who portray themselves as best friends. This friendship group was studied ethnographically in Syros (Greece) between 2014 and 2015, and data collection involved 10 hours of audio-recorded conversations, as well as field-notes. For the analysis of the participants’ small stories, this paper draws on positioning analysis and conversation analysis vis-à-vis small stories research as a framework to study identities-in-interaction. In particular, it employs the model of positioning in the fine-grained micro-analysis of a co-authored ‘small story’ about relationships with men. It demonstrates how the deferrals of telling and the refusals to tell are as integral a part of the analysis as the actual telling, since they allow us insights into the teller’s contradictory views about big issues and large identities. Moreover, the findings show how the teller manages the participation framework in cases of narrating difficult topics and ambivalent identities.

About the author

Vasiliki Saloustrou

Vasiliki Saloustrou is a PhD candidate in Language, Discourse & Communication at King’s College London. She has studied Linguistics at the University of Patras (Greece), and she also holds an MA in “Language and Cultural Diversity” from King’s College London. Her research interests include im/politeness theory, narrative analysis, discourse analysis, and identity analysis. Address for correspondence: School of Education, Communication & Society, King’s College London, Waterloo Bridge Wing, Waterloo, London, UK. Email: vasiliki.saloustrou@kcl.ac.uk

Acknowledgements

I am indebted to my supervisor, Prof. Alexandra Georgakopoulou, for our stimulating discussions, which have been instrumental in shaping the ideas for this paper, as well as for her constructive guidance, support, and inspiring input. I am also grateful to the editor of the Journal, Prof. Srikant Sarangi, as well as to the two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments on an earlier version of this paper. All remaining errors are my own.

Appendix: Transcription conventions (Jefferson 2004)

(.)

Short silence of less than 0.5 of a second

=

Continuous utterances (latching)

[

In the case of simultaneous talk, the onset of the overlapping turn

Sharp intonation rise

word

Salient stress

:

Extension or prolongation of a sound

::

Long extension or prolongation of a sound

><

Compressed or rushed talk

Wo-

A cut-off marker

.

Final intonation

?

Rising intonation

!

Animated tone

“ ”

Direct reported speech

CAPITALS

Relative loudness

(( ))

Editorial comments

italics

Greek transcript

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Published Online: 2020-04-16
Published in Print: 2020-05-27

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