Overview

This book aims to appraise sociolinguistic work devoted to the form and function of storytelling and to examine in detail the ways in which narrative constitutes a fundamental discursive resource across a range of contexts. The chapters presented here bring together some of the most recent work in the theory and practice of narrative analysis from a broad sociolinguistic perspective. They address some of the questions left implicit whenever stories are brought within the analytic frame of sociolinguistics: What exactly do we mean by 'story'?; what kind of social and contextual variations can determine the production and shape of situated stories, and what are the core elements of narrative as a discursive unit and interactional resource?; how is the relationship between narrative discourse and social context articulated in the construction of cultural identities? The data come both from institutional settings such as workplaces, courtrooms, schools, and the media, as well as from informal everyday settings.

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9789027226464

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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. -- Don E. Walicek, The University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras, on Linguist List 17.400, 2006

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