Positioning and its contributions to Identity Analysis Self & Identity through narrative –Narrative as action/activity Positioning and Positioning Analysis example wrap up JPS 2005 Vancouver

Stories versus Narrating Stories & Life as ‘resource’ –We HAVE a life/story (to tell) (as resource) –“Life is meaningful coz it’s a story” Narrative as activity –stories-in-interaction (= “small stories”) as ‘navigating’ through ‘interactive trouble’ –stories are situated actions ðwhere selves (identities) come to existence ðRitualized performances - sedimented through time - hailing subjects into being

Analysis of stories versus narrating (as an activity) Analysis of STORIES –Themes (partic. how ‘self’ is “thematized”) –Coherence (underlying ‘sense’ of a unified self) Analysis of NARRATING –interactive operations – –discursive resources – –Discursive POSITIONS

Open Questions   where small stories might be worthwhile How does this unified sense of self come to existence (issue of development + acculturation)? –how does the person in his/her particular culture and socio-historical context learn to “sort out” what is called life - and what makes life “worth living” (=what constitutes a ‘good’ life) Overemphasis of stories about ‘the self’ –Underplaying/-theorizing stories we tell about others Overemphasis of ‘long stories’ (interviews) –cutting out/devaluating everyday, small stories

Identifying + Analysing ‘small stories’ “narratives-in-interaction” Three levels of POSITIONING –Characters are positioned vis-à-vis one another Who is doing what to whom? –Speaker and audience are positioning each other Lecturing, advice giving, accounting, etc –Speaker positions ‘a self’ / his/her ‘identity’ Expert identity, hetero-sexual self, masculine identity Positions as interactively accomplished ( in and through the use of discourse )

expl 1 : people have different ‘tastes’ versus: judgments as ‘identity claims’ Positioning a self vis. Ms Spears –Britney Spears as ‘cute’ –Britney Spears as ‘yuck’ Why + when and HOW do we attribute ‘cuteness’

expl 2 :“It wasn’t me, hey, I’m Shaggy” Same group of ten-year-olds + adult moderator Moderator question: “what do YOU boys find attractive in girls?” –borrowing ‘a friend’ and ‘a girl’ positioning level 1 –borrowing another speaker positioning level 2 –borrowing ‘Shaggy’ positioning level 3

‘Shaggy’ It wasn’t me Honey came in and she caught me red-handed it wasn’t me CHORUS: but she caught me on the counter it wasn’t me saw me banging on the sofa it wasn’t me I even had her in the shower it wasn’t me she even caught me on camera it wasn’t me

Moderator question: “what do YOU boys find attractive in girls?” –borrowing ‘a friend’ and ‘a girl’ Positioning level 1 –borrowing another ‘speaker’ Positioning level 2 –borrowing ‘Shaggy’ Positioning level 3

simple explanation: –Attraction talk is “trouble talk”: Getting caught admiring girls (by ‘whooing’ or talking ‘about’ with self as ‘attracted’) makes you vulnerable “borrowing” the Shaggy persona seems to be a way out of this more complex issues: There are cues orienting toward the project at work that this isn’t meant to be taken seriously as such, these types of ‘double-edged’ discursive practices are quite common and very difficult to challenge

Two examples of ‘identity displays’ Britney Spears example (two attitudes) - independently –different strokes… Shaggy example (different attitudes “within the same person”) Different identity positions “WITHIN the same speaker”

What can we take from all this? Emergent identity Identities as plural Identities as always ‘hedged’ or ‘double- edged’ SMALL STORIES is where the action is

Kind of conclusion So rather than assuming the existence of identity + sense of self --- and viewing narratives as reflections thereof --- I am suggesting to study the Emergence of a sense of self by way of studying the SMALL STORIES people tell in their EVERYDAY interactions Identity Development as Process �

For anyone who is in search for his/her real self

Problems with Small Stories Generalizability –from few instances of ‘small stories’ to larger insights Indexicality –language cues pointing toward identity are often subtle, indirect, and multi-dimensional –they can’t be “read off” the data Performance –iterative + audience oriented