17.400, Review: Discourse/Socioling: Thornborrow & Coates (2005)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-17-400. Mon Feb 06 2006. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 17.400, Review: Discourse/Socioling: Thornborrow & Coates (2005)

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1)
Date: 06-Feb-2006
From: Don Walicek < walicek at alumni.utexas.net >
Subject: The Sociolinguistics of Narrative 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Mon, 06 Feb 2006 19:51:06
From: Don Walicek < walicek at alumni.utexas.net >
Subject: The Sociolinguistics of Narrative 
 

EDITORS: Thornborrow, Joanna; Coates, Jennifer
TITLE: The Sociolinguistics of Narrative 
SERIES: Studies in Narrative 
PUBLISHER: John Benjamins Publishing Company 
YEAR: 2005
Announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/16/16-2002.html 

Don E. Walicek, The University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras

DESCRIPTION:

This edited volume is the sixth work in a series on narrative published 
by John Benjamins.  It builds on existing scholarship indicating that 
narrative is central to social interaction.  Exploring the ''pervasive role 
of narrative in our everyday life,'' the book includes thirteen chapters 
that discuss the structure and function of storytelling from a 
sociolinguistic perspective.  In addition to addressing theoretical and 
cultural issues, this text examines oral narratives associated with the 
media, the court room, educational institutions, and the workplace.   

SYNOPSIS:

The first chapter is entitled 'The Sociolinguistics of Narrative: Identity, 
Performance and Culture.'  Written by the editors, it addresses some 
of the questions ''left implicit whenever stories are brought within the 
analytic frame of sociolinguistics'' (1).  These concern:  the meaning of 
story, the use of narrative as a descriptive term, how context affects 
the production and shape of stories, the core elements of narrative as 
a discursive unit / interactional resource, and the relationship between 
situated narrative discourse and the construction of cultural identities.  
Thornborrow and Coates draw attention to two themes that tie 
together the book's contents: the tellability of stories and the 
differences between individual and community-based approaches to 
narrative.  In addition, this chapter refers to seminal theoretical work in 
the study of narrative, reviewing key concepts from Labov and 
Waletzky (1967) and Labov (1972).   

Chapter 2, 'Narrative as a Resource in Accounts of the Experience of 
Illness' by Jenny Cheshire and Sue Ziebland, examines the life story in 
the context of narratives.  The chapter focuses on the testimonies of 
two individuals who see their struggles with hypertension very 
differently.  One considers herself a typical patient and notes that her 
illness tends to affect ''someone like myself;'' the other considers 
herself atypical, pointing out that the condition in question does not 
affect ''the real me.'' Comparing these points of view leads the authors 
to see them as ''an important resource for people who have to adjust 
to living with a chronic condition, helping to reinforce the strategies 
they have developed in order to cope with the everyday demands of 
the condition'' (40).

Chapter 3 presents 'Storying East-German Pasts: Memory Discourses 
and Narratives of Readjustment on the German / Polish and former 
German / German Border' by Heidi Armbruster and Ulrike H. Meinhof.  
In order to explore the communication strategies of  people who 
endure major political and historical change (in this case, in Guben on 
the Polish-German border and a cluster of villages in Thuringia), the 
researchers used symbolically significant photographs 
as ''communication triggers'' in interviews conducted between 1999 
and 2000.  The authors interpret their data in terms of models of 
identity which postulate that crucial aspects of self-experience are 
constituted not outside, but within narrative.  Armbruster and Meinhof 
argue that practices of self-representation are practices of memory, 
that narratives are simultaneously a means of reflecting on and 
reshaping the past.

Chapter 4, written by Nikolas Coupland, Peter Garrett, and Angie 
Williams, discusses narratives of personal experience that teenage 
boys shared in classrooms in Wales.  The essay achieves two main 
goals:  first, it demonstrates why researchers' commentaries should be 
integrated alongside evaluative data from the community studied; and 
second, it shows that the successful telling of stories depends on 
locally operative norms of production and interpretation.  This work 
contains a valuable theoretical section that expounds the distinction 
between 'talk' and 'performance.' Referring to Bauman (1992), the 
authors formulate a list of seven criteria that define performance as 
a ''focusing of communicative events.'' They draw attention to 
processes by which stories are ''entextualised'' (put into text at the 
time told) and ''decontextualised'' (in a sense ''packaged'' as ''to go'' 
items), turning to Bauman and Briggs (1990).  

The next chapter is 'Masculinity, Collaborative Narration and the 
Heterosexual Couple' by Jennifer Coates.  The subject here is co-
narration, collaboratively produced conversation, for which Coates 
identifies three key features: repetition, joint utterance construction, 
and overlapping speech.  Based on her observation that male 
speakers in single-sex groups prefer solo narration, the author 
differentiates men who participate in collaborative narrative from ''new 
men;'' she describes the former as speakers who perform 
heterosexuality and ''(hegemonic) masculinity'' (105).

Two contributions address the notion of context.  The sixth 
chapter, 'Contextualizing and Recontextualizing Interlaced Stories in 
Conversation,' is written by Neal R. Norrick.  The author examines two 
interlaced stories, which he sees as examples of a type of narrative 
sequencing and co-narration in which participants speak of 
interrelated events.  Focusing on ''... the contextualization and 
subsequent recontextualization in the telling of these stories...,'' (109) 
he situates this sub-genre in terms of his previous work on humour in 
these same stories (Norrick 2005) and ''story-telling rights'' (Shuman 
1986, Blum-Kulka 1993).  Next, in 'Hearing Voices,' Dick Leith 
discusses evasion and self-disclosure in an individual's narratives of 
alcohol addiction.  The discussion centers largely on two transcribed 
narratives, but also integrates elements of ethnography and 
autobiography.  Leith argues that listeners ''... as well as narrators, 
have biographies, and that the issue of identity for both is a fluid and 
multi-layered one'' (143).  

The following two essays deal with the stories preschoolers tell.  
Chapter 8 is 'Modes of Meaning Making in Young Children's 
Conversation Storytelling' by Shoshana Blum-Kulka.  It describes 
narratives recorded in a preschool in Jerusalem.  The author argues 
that peer talk should be understood as a ''double opportunity space'' 
(150) in which talk functions simultaneously in two distinct spaces:  in 
this case the first (''socio-cultural arena'') is a space unique to the 
culture of youth, while the second (''discursive arena'') is a testing 
ground of sorts through which children eventually acquire adult-like 
uses of language that include narrative conventions.  Chapter 9 is 
written by Amy Sheldon and Heidi Engstrom.  Entitled 'Two Systems of 
Mutual Engagement,' it describes the co-construction of gendered 
narrative styles among Midwestern North American four and five year 
olds.  The authors focus on ''unsupervised spontaneous pretend play'' 
(174) among two same-sex groups, one female and one male.  
Sheldon and Engstrom point to differences in examples of 
performance, but argue against the idea that these gendered 
processes are mutually exclusive and correlate with a single gender.  

Janet Holmes and Meredith Marra present their study of workplace 
narratives in Chapter 10.  Probing the ideological significance of talk, 
their work contextualizes six anecdotes alongside a discussion of the 
professional identities of two managers.  Holmes and Marra find that 
these anecdotes ''... often complexify and humanise the standard 
professional identity constructed by workplace managers, ... providing 
a more personal perspective than the standard institutional discourse 
allows'' (210). They describe these data, which contrast with more 
focused ''business talk,'' as relatively unique, comparatively 
compressed, and structurally minimal.

Sandra Harris leads readers to the courtroom in Chapter 11, 'Telling 
stories and giving evidence.' The author examines narrative and 
narrative structure in a 1997 sexual assault trial.  Special attention is 
given to: ''the intermingling of narrative and non-narrative modes of 
discourse'' and the pressure (e.g., pressure on prosecuting 
lawyers) ''to construct witness narratives as a powerful and persuasive 
way of achieving a measure of discourse coherence'' in light of the 
anti-narrative mode of much trial language (217).  Harris reviews 
previous work on narrative and points to ways in which different 
participants characterize narrative differently (e.g., judges vs. 
witnesses).

The topic of Chapter 12 is television news.  In it Martin Montgomery 
identifies a number of problems that arise when this discourse genre 
is analyzed within a narrative framework.  Discussing concepts such 
as tense, textual cohesion, and principles of intelligibility, he holds that 
television news only intermittently relies on narrative.  Montgomery 
argues that a large amount of news reporters' discourse should be 
classified as 'commentary.' An appendix includes transcripts of data, 
most of which are from BBC broadcasts.

Chapter 13 by Terry Threadgold juxtaposes an overview of the 
previous chapters with a discussion of questions that arise when they 
are considered as a whole.  Pulling from the work of Bourdieu (1990) 
in assessing the collection, he writes that telling stories ''seems to be 
an important part of the way in which the habitus is negotiated and 
thus of the way in which the social is embodied, enacted and remade'' 
(263).  This concluding essay includes provocative commentary on 
performativity, genre, the significance of micro-level analysis, as well 
as an engaging account of Threadgold's work on refugee and asylum 
issues in Great Britain.  The author's research on the later topic 
includes: the organization of a group to monitor the media's 
representation of asylum / refugee issues and the establishment of a 
creative writing and media literacy classroom project.  These two 
examples show that narrative can be ''used for radical interventions of 
a kind which do not just analyse narratives in particular social contexts 
but also rewrite them in order to change the dominant kinds of social 
realities and selves (habitus) which they produce'' (264).

CRITICAL EVALUATION

Unmistakably, this text makes an impressive and significant 
contribution to the study of narrative.  Each of the book's well-written 
chapters strikes an impressive balance between the need to support 
research with empirical data and the importance of relating an 
argument to relevant theoretical concerns.  Those interested in the 
analysis of narrative will be undoubtedly delighted by this publication.  
The volume identifies a number of ways in which the study of narrative 
relates to research in other fields (e.g., linguistic anthropology, gender 
studies, critical discourse analysis, history).  Cheshire and Ziebland, 
for example, illuminate connections between narratives about the 
body and work in the health field.  Accordingly, this study will be of 
wide appeal, attracting readers with interests in areas such as 
sociolinguistics, forensic linguistics, and theories of identity and 
performance.

With respect to technical matters, the book's index does not do justice 
to the rich content found between its covers.  While adequate as a 
subject index, the names of researchers mentioned in the text are 
completely absent from it, even those whose work receives substantial 
emphasis (e.g., William Labov, Judith Butler, Roland Barthes).  An 
index that included authors' names would make information easier to 
locate and identify areas of overlap between chapters.  In addition, the 
works by Hayden White and Herrnstein Smith that Threadgold refers 
to are missing from the bibliography (261). On a more positive note, 
the book has few typographical errors and is written in a clear and 
concise manner that makes it appropriate for those new to the field as 
well as for more seasoned scholars.  

As I reread the first chapter several times, a certain statement jumps 
out at me, ''... the issues that seem to us to be central to work on 
narrative at this time are issues that are highly salient in 
sociolinguistics in general'' (14). This may be fair as an overview of 
some of the work in these two fields; however, as has been noted by 
Rickford (2001), assumptions about what count as relevant and how 
researchers study language depend significantly on how the 
enterprise or goal of sociolinguistics is interpreted.  In his 
words, ''Labovian, Hymesian, and Couplandian conceptions of this are 
different'' (221).

An example of one place that this might be of relevance is Chapter 5's 
discussion of the co-construction of stories.  Referring to her data, 
Coates tells us the ''[m]ixed conversations are full of collaborative 
narration, involving heterosexual couples, male and female friends, 
fathers and daughters, mothers and male family members, as well as 
mothers and daughters, sisters, female friends'' (105).  She observes 
that her data do not reveal examples of men collaborating with other 
men to produce a narrative.  According to the author, ''Heterosexuality 
is at the heart of dominant versions of masculinity, so when male 
speakers perform the heterosexual couple through co-narration with a 
female partner, they are also performing hegemonic masculinity.''  She 
argues that these speakers perform a hegemonic masculinity which 
has heterosexuality, and possibly the fear of being identified as gay, 
at its heart (105).  

As I understand it, Coates suggests that the absence of a certain 
pattern of interaction (i.e., men telling stories together in the presence 
of women) is best accounted for by a subset of data (i.e., collaborative 
narratives among heterosexual couples) and its links to hegemonic 
interpretations of masculinity.  Might a wider discussion of 
collaboration, one that included a discussion of duetting in male-
female non-couples and in all male groups, be insightful here?  
Moreover, a discussion of ''hierarchies of precedence among 
components'' (Hymes 1972) could address how factors such as 
setting, participants, and topic inform the phenomenon of collaborative 
narration, perhaps even leading to insight on instances in which 
norms for collaboration and performing gender are resisted, forgotten, 
or altogether ignored.  I sense in the volume a general reluctance to 
juxtapose sharply different points of view within individual chapters 
(one exception is Montgomery's Chapter 12).
 
In addition, it seems that the assessment of the interface between 
sociolinguistics and narrative studies gives little attention to a number 
of arguably devastating critiques of sociolinguistic theories and 
methodologies (Cameron 1990, Harris 1980, 1981, Romaine 1984, 
Singh 1996).  While metacritique in sociolinguistics goes unmentioned 
in a number of recent overviews of work in sociolinguistics, I consider 
it ''highly salient'' and believe that they have much to do with the topic 
of this exciting text.  Note that Threadgold writes that research on 
narrative has contributed to ''... rewriting the theories themselves, 
especially linguistic theory, because these two came to be seen 
as ''narratives which told only part of the story'' (267).

Several chapters direct attention to previously mentioned early work 
on narrative (Labov 1972, Labov and Waletsky 1967).  I appreciate 
and continue to learn from these examples of research, but I believe 
that situating this research in terms of critique and refinement of 
Labovian models would assist readers in better positioning the 
provocative examples of research this book contains in terms of 
questions Threadgold poses:  What is the relationship among theory, 
method, and narrative? Why does the study of narrative matter? How 
can it be used? 

For example, in Chapter 2 Cheshire and Ziebland indicate 
that ''narrative discourse allows them to interweave the objective and 
subjective aspects of knowledge... '' (40).  As I read the accounts of 
illness the chapter presents, the narratives from Rose and Josephine 
that the authors share stood out to me as stories belying any order of 
accounts that preserves a strict division between subject and object.  I 
am partially satisfied with the conclusion that ''narrative provides a way 
for them to display and construct an identity as patient and to 
integrate this identity into their sense of a stable, coherent, permanent 
self'' (40). But as I studied this intriguing chapter I kept thinking of 
ways to use social theory to further unpack the idea that ''language 
reflects society'' (Cameron 1990).  

In his work on narrative, Bakhtin (1979) speaks of dual moments of 
aesthetic activity, discussing not only identification and empathy, but 
also ''extopy.'' Extopic positions relay a watchful listening, an excess of 
comprehension and knowledge.  Bakhtin's comments recognize Rose 
and Josephine outside and next to the world they tell about:  Each of 
these women is an able storyteller, a being independent of herself, 
with whom she appears to be on equal footing.  According to Bakhtin 
(1984), the positions from which their stories are told must be oriented 
in a new way to this new world, ''a world of autonomous subjects, not 
objects'' (7).  I include Bakhtin's commentary not because I think the 
authors of Chapter 2 should have mentioned it, but because it can 
serve as a reminder that scientific analysis does not always have to 
strive for a final, fixed solution to problems such as those the research 
discussed above strives to answer.  The study of narrative reveals 
science as story and speaks of stories as spaces through which 
meaning passes.  Science and story both emerge as modes of 
knowing that tolerate and nurture questions and silences.

REFERENCES

Cameron, D. (1990).  Demythologizing sociolinguistics: Why language 
does not reflect society. In J.E. Joseph and T.J. Taylor (Eds.), 
Ideologies of Language (pp. 79-93).  New York: Routledge.

Bakhtin, M.  (1979). Estetika Slovesnogo Tvorchestva (The Aesthetics 
of Verbal Creation).  Moscow: S.G. Bocharov.

Bakhtin, M. (1984).  Problems in Dostoevsky's Poetics. ed. and trans. 
Caryl Emerson.  Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Bauman, R.  (1992). Performance.  In R. Bauman (Ed.), Folklore, 
Culture Performances, and Popular Entertainments (pp. 41-49).  
Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Bauman, R. and Briggs, C. (1990).  Poetics and performance as 
critical perspectives on language as social life.  Annual Review of 
Anthropology 19, 59-88.

Blum-Kulka, S. (1993). You gotta know how to tell a story: Telling, 
tales, and tellers in American and Israeli narrative events at dinner.  
Language in Society 22, 361-402.  

Bourdieu, P. (1990). The Logic of Practice.  Cambridge: Polity Press.

Harris, R. (1980).  The Language Makers. London: Duckworth.

Harris, R. (1981).  The Language Myth. London: Duckworth.

Hymes, D. (1972). Models of the interaction of language and social 
life.  In J.J. Gumperz and D. Hymes (Eds.), Directions in 
Sociolinguistics: The Ethnography of Communication (pp. 35-71).  
New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.

Labov, W. (1972).  The transformation of experience in narrative 
syntax.  In Language in the Inner City: Studies in the Black English 
Vernacular (pp. 354-396). Philadelphia:  University of Pennsylvania 
Press.

Labov, W. and Waletzky, J. (1967). Narrative analysis: Oral versions 
of personal experience. In J. Helm (Ed.), Essays in the Verbal and 
Visual Arts  (pp.12-44). Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press.  

Norrick, N.R.  (2005).  Interaction in the telling and retelling of 
interlaced stories: The co-construction of humorous narratives. In U. 
Quasthoff and T. Beckles (Eds.), Narrative Interaction (pp. 263-283). 
Amsterdam: John Benjamins.  

Rickford, J.R. (2001). Style and stylizing. In J.R. Rickford and P. 
Eckert (Eds.), Style and Sociolinguistic Variation (pp. 220-231).  New 
York:  Cambridge University Press.

Romaine, S. (1984). The status of sociological models and categories 
in linguistic variation, Linguistische Berichte 90, 25-38.

Shuman, A. (1986). Story Telling Rights: The Uses of Oral and Written 
Texts by Urban Adolescents.  Cambridge: Cambridge University 
Press.  

Singh, R. K. (Ed.). (1996). Towards a Critical Sociolinguistics.  
Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 

ABOUT THE REVIEWER:

Don E. Walicek is a doctoral student in the Department of English at 
the University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras.  His research interests 
include sociolinguistics, sociohistorical linguistics, Pidgin and Creole 
Studies, and the language-ideology interface.  He is the guest editor 
of the publication 'Creolistics and Caribbean Languages,' Sargasso 
2004-2005, I.





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