Interactional Positioning and Narrative Self-construction

Many have proposed that autobiographical stories do more than describe a pre-existing self. Sometimes narrators can change who they are, in part, by telling stories about themselves. But how does this narrative self-construction happen? Most explanations rely on the representational function of autobiographical discourse. These representational accounts of narrative self-construction are necessarily incomplete, because autobiographical narratives have interactional as well as representational functions. While telling their stories autobiographical narrators often enact a characteristic type of self, and through such performances they can become that type of self. A few others have proposed that interactional positioning is central to narrative self-construction, but none has given an adequate, systematic account of how narrative discourse functions to position narrator and audience in the interactional event of storytelling. This article describes an approach to analyzing the interactional positioning accomplished through autobiographical narrative, and it illustrates this approach by analyzing data from one oral autobiographical narrative.

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Jean Quigley, The grammar of autobiography: A developmental account. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2000. Pp. xiv, 232. Hb $49.95.

Language in Society ◽

10.1017/s0047404501233053 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 30 (3) ◽

pp. 490-493

Author(s):

Stanton Wortham

Keyword(s):

Language Development ◽

Developmental Psychology ◽

Two Dimensions ◽

Narrative Discourse ◽

The Self ◽

Narrative Self ◽

Functional Linguistics ◽

The Subject ◽

Autobiographical Narrative

In The grammar of autobiography, Jean Quigley makes a claim that one often hears nowadays: that the self is constructed in autobiographical narrative discourse. Two dimensions of the work distinguish her analysis of narrative self-construction from many other treatments of the subject. First, she offers a genuinely interdisciplinary account, drawing on functional linguistics, theoretical and developmental psychology, and accounts of language development. Second, she studies a particular category of linguistic forms – modals – as the key to narrative self-construction.

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Forced migration and psychosocial health: meaning-making through autobiographical narratives in the UK

MIGRATION LETTERS ◽

10.33182/ml.v7i1.182 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

pp. 79-90 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Maria Psoinos

Keyword(s):

Social Context ◽

Meaning Making ◽

Forced Migration ◽

Psychosocial Health ◽

Autobiographical Narratives ◽

Narrative Interviews ◽

Negative Stereotypes ◽

The Third ◽

The Uk ◽

Autobiographical Narrative

This paper explores how refugees in the UK perceive the relation between their experience of migration and their psychosocial health. Autobiographical narrative interviews were carried out with fifteen refugees residing in the UK. The findings reveal a contrast between the negative stereotypes concerning refugees’ psychosocial health and the participants’ own perceptions. Two of the three emerging narratives suggest a more balanced view of refugees’ psychosocial health, since- in contrast to the stereotypes- most participants did not perceive this through the lens of ‘vulnerability’. The third narrative revealed that a hostile social context can negatively shape refugees’ perceptions of their psychosocial health. This runs counter to the stereotype of refugees as being exclusively responsible for their ‘passiveness’ and therefore for the problems they face.

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Autobiographical narratives in the elderly with neurocognitive disorder: an integrative literature review

Revista CEFAC ◽

10.1590/1982-0216/20202251820 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 22 (5) ◽

Author(s):

Ana Paula Machado Goyano Mac-Kay ◽

Melissa Barrera ◽

Camila Córdova ◽

Romina Olivares ◽

Daniela Vásquez

Keyword(s):

English Language ◽

The Elderly ◽

Strict Sense ◽

Neurocognitive Disorder ◽

Autobiographical Narratives ◽

Related Data ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

Specific Objective ◽

Autobiographical Study ◽

Autobiographical Narrative

ABSTRACT Objective: to carry out an integrative review of the literature on autobiographical narratives as a discursive activity in the older adult with neurocognitive disorder. Methods: a descriptive study that covered the Scopus, SciELO, PubMed, and Science Direct databases, from 2009 to 2019, using the keywords autobiographical, narrative, dementia, reminiscence, the elderly, and the Boolean operator. A narrative synthesis was adopted considering the characteristics of the clinical, and methodological heterogeneity of the studies. Results: the results included 3 articles published between 2012 and 2018, in the English language, from the United Kingdom, Brazil, and Argentina, which highlighted the autobiographical narratives. Although in a strict sense they did not present the narrative as a specific objective of the autobiographical study, they did provide interesting and related data which justified their inclusion. Conclusion: it is observed that the literature researched presents a limited number of articles, adressing the autobiographical narrative as a discursive activity in the elderly with neurocognitive disorder.

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„Moja podróż z językiem obcym” – narracyjne badanie autobiograficzne

Neofilolog ◽

10.14746/n.2010.34.9 ◽

1970 ◽

pp. 91-110

Author(s):

Dorota Werbińska

Keyword(s):

Elementary Education ◽

Research Study ◽

Narrative Research ◽

Autobiographical Narratives ◽

Learning And Teaching ◽

Fields Of Study ◽

Autobiographical Narrative

The aim of this article is to show some possibilities of using autobiographical narratives in the learning and teaching languages. The first part, focused on theoretical aspects of autobiographical research, points to its functions, problems for the researcher and possible content to be examined. The second part describes an example of the author’s autobiographical narrative research study conducted among the students of philological (English philology) and non-philological (elementary education with English and management) fields of study, whose task was to write an autobiography entitled “My journey with a foreignlanguage”.

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The Narrative Self in Autobiographical Accounts of Illness

The Sociological Review ◽

10.1111/1467-954x.00064 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 45 (2) ◽

pp. 254-278 ◽

Cited By ~ 46

Author(s):

Michael P. Kelly ◽

Hilary Dickinson

Keyword(s):

Chronic Illness ◽

Sociological Theory ◽

The Self ◽

Power Relationships ◽

Narrative Self ◽

Autobiographical Accounts ◽

Autobiographical Narrative

The paper analyzes autobiographical accounts of the experience of chronic illness and its treatment to develop a sociological theory of the self. It is suggested that ‘self’ is not a biologistic or psychologistic thing. Rather self is autobiographical narrative – hence the narrative self. It is argued that four elements constitute such narrative selves in autobiographical discourse: evaluative relationships between events in time; cosmology; power relationships; and conceptualisation of self as object.

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Communication Breakdown

Social Philosophy Today ◽

10.5840/socphiltoday201981263 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 35 ◽

pp. 59-73

Author(s):

David J. Leichter ◽

Keyword(s):

Structural Violence ◽

Moral Imagination ◽

Narrative Ethics ◽

Narrative Discourse ◽

Illness Experience ◽

Ethical Theories ◽

Narrative Self ◽

Communication Breakdown ◽

Narrative Forms ◽

Traditional Approaches

The turn to narrative in biomedicine has been one of the most important alternatives to traditional approaches to bioethics. Rather than using ethical theories and principles to guide behavior, narrative ethics uses the moral imagination to cultivate and expand one’s capacities for empathy. This paper argues that by themselves narratives do not, and cannot, fully capture the range of the illness experience. But more than that, the emphasis on narrative often obscures how dominant forms of narrative discourse often operate to marginalize those whose narratives fall outside the parameters of traditional narrative forms or whose stories are occluded by structural violence and oppression. Rather, by focusing on forms of embodiment that are irreducible to narrative discursivity, this paper highlights forms of selfhood that exist outside of the narrative self.

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Autobiographical narrative and psychiatry

Advances in Psychiatric Treatment ◽

10.1192/apt.9.4.265 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 9 (4) ◽

pp. 265-270 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Femi Oyebode

Keyword(s):

Mental Illness ◽

Personal Relationships ◽

Autobiographical Narratives ◽

Subjective Beliefs ◽

Autobiographical Narrative

This paper addresses how mental illness and psychiatry are presented in autobiographical narratives. The richness of clinical psychopathology unmediated by the expectations of psychiatry is described. The rituals of psychiatry, the importance of the personal relationships between patients and clinicians, and the subjective beliefs of people about mental illness are explored.

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The French Discourse Marker Mais Dame: Past and Present Functions

The Canadian Journal of Linguistics / La revue canadienne de linguistique ◽

10.1017/s000841310000089x ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 53 (1) ◽

pp. 63-82

Author(s):

Gary R. Butler ◽

Ruth King

Keyword(s):

19Th Century ◽

Narrative Discourse ◽

Literary Texts ◽

Discourse Marker ◽

Naturally Occurring ◽

Discourse Functions ◽

The 19Th Century ◽

Oral Narration

AbstractWe examine the evolution and current use of the French discourse marker mais dame, whose usage was first attested in Metropolitan French early in the 19th century. This expression has since fallen into disuse, to the point that many present-day Metropolitan French speakers do not even know it. We first determine the discourse functions of mais dame in literary texts (comedies and farces) from the 19th century. We then consider the use of mais dame in naturally occurring discourse, from conversational and narrative discourse with Newfoundland Franco-Acadians—descendants in part of 19th-century immigrants from France who speak a conservative variety of the language — who use the marker frequently. We find that the 19th-century literary usages anticipate the use of mais dame in Newfoundland French. Moreover, we show that mais dame plays an important role as an evaluative marker in oral narration.

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What Do We Have When We Have a Narrative?

Imagination Cognition and Personality ◽

10.1177/0276236617733823 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 37 (2) ◽

pp. 105-126 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Azriel Grysman ◽

Cade D. Mansfield

Keyword(s):

Social Interaction ◽

Sense Of Self ◽

Autobiographical Narratives ◽

Special Issue ◽

Personality Psychology ◽

Narrative Self ◽

Narrative Methods

This review introduces our special issue, which presents a variety of papers with explicit assumptions of how narrative methods are used in cognitive and personality psychology studies of autobiographical narratives. We begin this review with an examination of how narrative is conceptualized in terms of reflecting and influencing a sense of self that is sculpted via social interaction. After explicating these constructs more carefully, we turn to an analysis of narrative methods, examining how different methodologies of narrative coding take on certain assumptions, either implicitly or explicitly, regarding narrative, self, and social interaction.

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The Discourse Functions of Overspecified Anaphoric Expressions in Biblical Hebrew Narrative: Genesis 12-24 as a Test Case1

Journal of Semitic Studies ◽

10.1093/jss/fgaa001 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 65 (2) ◽

pp. 275-296

Author(s):

Ulf Bergström

Keyword(s):

Biblical Hebrew ◽

Narrative Discourse ◽

Mental Processes ◽

General Relevance ◽

Discourse Functions

Abstract In Biblical Hebrew, as in other languages, anaphoric reference is often overspecified; that is, an anaphoric noun (lexical anaphora) is used in a place where the inflection of the verb (inflectional anaphora) would be a sufficient indicator as to who is being referred to. The present study investigates the function of overspecified subject referents in Biblical Hebrew narrative discourse. It is found that overspecification can be associated with three main textual phenomena, namely, events of general relevance, subject referent initiative, and various textual discontinuities. The function of indicating subject referent initiative lies behind many of the occurrences of lexical anaphora at the beginning of episodic units, but it may also occur within episodes. The different functions of overspecification and inflectional anaphora arise as a result of the different mental processes triggered by lexical and deictic anaphora, whereby the former evokes general, contextindependent knowledge about the referent and impedes the access to the information contained in the previous clause, whereas the latter makes it immediately available.

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