Narrative as self-portrait: Sociolinguistic constructions of identity

Journal/Book: Lang Soc. 1996; 25: 40 West 20TH Street, New York, NY 10011-4211. Cambridge Univ Press. 167-203.

Abstract: The ability of narrative to verbalize and situate experience as text (both locally and globally) provides a resource for the display of self and identity. This article focuses on two stories told by Jewish-American women about troublesome issues in their families. Analysis of the language of the stories shows how they reveal aspects of the storytellers' agentive and epistemic selves; how they construct positions in their families (pivoting between solidarity and distance, the provision of autonomy, and the exercise of power); and how they display their social identities as mothers. The view of identity offered through narrative analysis is briefly compared with other methodological and theoretical perspectives on identity.

Note: Review D Schiffrin, Georgetown Univ, Dept Linguist, Washington, DC 20057 USA

Keyword(s): DISCOURSE; CONDITIONALS; TOPICS

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