call for papers on narrative and identity

[definaa at georgetown.edu]

Call for papers

Submissions are invited for a colloquium on Narrative and Identity to be
proposed for the Discourse Analysis topic area at the AAAL 2001
Convention in St. Louis Missouri. The Convention will be held February
24-27.

Below you will find the colloquium abstracts

Prospective participants are invited to send inquiries and abstracts for
20 minutes papers to
Anna De Fina
e-mail definaa at georgetown.edu

SUMISSION DEADLINE JULY 8th, 2000
Colloquium abstract: NARRATIVE AND IDENTITY

The investigation of identity has seen a resurgence of interest in
sociolinguistics and discourse analysis as a growing body of literature
stresses the central role that language plays in the construction,
negotiation and ratification of identities. At the same time, social
constructionist approaches have pointed to the multifaceted nature of
social identities and, crucially, to the role of interaction in their
construction. In linguistics  these approaches have variously borrowed
from Bakhtin's (1984) ideas on multiple voicing , Goffman's (1981)
notions of participation frameworks and of  "self-presentation" (1954),
Davie's and Harre's (1990) proposals about positioning, Gumpertz'
groundbreaking work on  contextualization (1982and 1992), only to name
some fundamental points of reference. More recent developments have also
suggested that identities in many modern societies reflect the complex
experiences of individuals and communities with multiple areas of
identification, and multiple spheres of social interaction (Hill, 1999).
Narrative has been seen by many researchers in linguistics and other
areas as a privileged locus for the study of identity. The objective of
this colloquium is to further explore this nexus exemplifying ways in
which narratives allow us to speak of "identities", rather than
"identity".  Topics for papers include the following questions: What
specific linguistic resources are exploited by speakers to convey
identities ? How are locally constructed identities related to more
global ones? What kinds of multiple and /or conflicting self
presentations may inhabit the same narrative space? What kinds of
interactions exist in narrative between identities that narrators choose
and socially attributed or  prescribed ones?  Contributions are invited
on different genres within narrative discourse including personal
narratives, life stories, institutional narratives.