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Positioningand its contributions to Identity Analysis
• Self & Identity through narrative– Narrative as action/activity
• Positioning and Positioning Analysis• example• wrap up
JPS 2005Vancouver
Stories versus Narrating• Stories & Life as ‘resource’
– We HAVE a life/story (to tell) (as resource)
– “Life is meaningful coz it’s a story”
• Narrative as activity <narrating>– stories-in-interaction (= “small stories”) as
‘navigating’ through ‘interactive trouble’
– stories are situated actions <with selves in interaction> where selves (identities) come to existence Ritualized performances - sedimented through time -
hailing subjects into being
Analysis ofstories versus narrating (as an activity)
• Analysis of STORIES– Themes (partic. how ‘self’ is “thematized”)– Coherence (underlying ‘sense’ of a unified self)
• Analysis of NARRATING <as mundane activity>
– interactive operations – <as “identity confrontations/negotiations”>
– discursive resources – <the rhetorical means to CONSTRUCT stories>
– Discursive POSITIONS <positioning analysis>
Open Questionswhere small stories might be worthwhile
• How does this unified sense of self come to existence (issue of development + acculturation)?– how does the person in his/her particular culture and
socio-historical context learn to “sort out” what is called life - and what makes life “worth living” (=what constitutes a ‘good’ life)
• Overemphasis of stories about ‘the self’– Underplaying/-theorizing stories we tell about others
• Overemphasis of ‘long stories’ (interviews)– cutting out/devaluating everyday, small stories
Identifying + Analysing ‘small stories’“narratives-in-interaction”
• Three levels of POSITIONING– Characters are positioned vis-à-vis one another
• Who is doing what to whom?
– Speaker and audience are positioning each other• Lecturing, advice giving, accounting, etc
– Speaker positions ‘a self’ / his/her ‘identity’• Expert identity, hetero-sexual self, masculine identity
• Positions as interactively accomplished (in and through the use of discourse)
expl 1: people have different ‘tastes’versus: judgments as ‘identity claims’
• Positioning a self vis. Ms Spears– Britney Spears as ‘cute’
– Britney Spears as ‘yuck’
Why + when and HOW do we attribute ‘cuteness’
expl 2:“It wasn’t me, hey, I’m Shaggy”
• Same group of ten-year-olds + adult moderator
• Moderator question: “what do YOU boys find attractive in girls?”– borrowing ‘a friend’ and ‘a girl’
• positioning level 1
– borrowing another speaker• positioning level 2
– borrowing ‘Shaggy’• positioning level 3
‘Shaggy’• It wasn’t me
Honey came in and she caught me red-handed
it wasn’t me
CHORUS:
but she caught me on the counter
it wasn’t me
saw me banging on the sofa
it wasn’t me
I even had her in the shower
it wasn’t me
she even caught me on camera
it wasn’t me
Moderator question: “what do YOU boys find attractive in girls?”– borrowing ‘a friend’ and ‘a girl’ <characters IN the story>
<positioning these characters vis-à-vis each other>• Positioning level 1
– borrowing another ‘speaker’ <turning to audience + positioning them as ‘speakers’> <letting THEM ‘voice’ and perform the problem/trouble>
• Positioning level 2
– borrowing ‘Shaggy’ <claiming + performing Shaggy’s identity> <but why?>
• Positioning level 3
• simple explanation:– Attraction talk is “trouble talk”:
• Getting caught admiring girls (by ‘whooing’ or talking ‘about’ with self as ‘attracted’) makes you vulnerable
• “borrowing” the Shaggy persona seems to be a way out of this <navigating vulnerability>
• more complex issues:• There are cues orienting toward the project at work
that this isn’t meant to be taken seriously <false compliance - parody -- detaching himself - mimicking>
• as such, these types of ‘double-edged’ discursive practices are quite common and very difficult to challenge
Two examples of ‘identity displays’
• Britney Spears example (two attitudes) - independently
– different strokes…
• Shaggy example (different attitudes “within the same person”)
• Different identity positions “WITHIN the same speaker” <work with contradictions>
What can we take from all this?
• Emergent identity
• Identities as plural
• Identities as always ‘hedged’ or ‘double-edged’
• SMALL STORIES is where the action is
Kind of conclusion• So rather than assuming the existence of
identity + sense of self <as resources> --- and viewing narratives as reflections thereof
--- I am suggesting to study the
Emergence of a sense of selfby way of studying the SMALL STORIES
people tell in their EVERYDAY interactions
Identity Development as Process�