Introduction/US Black churchwomen

[A Kortenhoven]

Hi all--I am working on my dissertation which is an  analysis of
linguistic practices of black women in a Sanctified church.  In
particular, I am interested in a genre "Testifyin" which is important
in the community and is a female-dominated practice.  I'm analyzing the
structure of the testimonies, which sometimes involve embedded
narratives, and looking at the ideologies evidenced in the language the
women use.  I started off thinking about intonation, style, genre, and
performance.  And I'm finding some really cool stuff (amazing prosodic
stylizing, centrality of audience particiipation, biblical language in
conversation, womanist ideological stances in performances and in the
interpretations of the biblical narrative...).   There's so much I
don't think I'll be able to cover it in one dissertation!  After
collecting the data, I realize I need to dig more into the discourse
literature to better handle the data.  I've been sifting around, but
thought I should best ask the experts.  Suggestions anyone?

Best,
Angie Kortenhoven
kortenhoven at stanford.edu