Discourse and Identity

The relationship between language, discourse and identity has always been a major area of sociolinguistic investigation. In more recent times, the field has been revolutionized as previous models - which assumed our identities to be based on stable relationships between linguistic and social variables - have been challenged by pioneering new approaches to the topic. This volume brings together a team of leading experts to explore discourse in a range of social contexts. By applying a variety of analytical tools and concepts, the contributors show how we build images of ourselves through language, how society moulds us into different categories, and how we negotiate our membership of those categories. Drawing on numerous interactional settings (the workplace; medical interviews; education), in a variety of genres (narrative; conversation; interviews), and amongst different communities (immigrants; patients; adolescents; teachers), this revealing volume sheds light on how our social practices can help to shape our identities.

Part I. Overview: Theory, Method and Analysis: Editors' Introduction Anna de Fina, Deborah Schiffrin and Michael Bamberg; 1. Narrative and identity: the double arrow of time Elliott Mishler; 2. Footing, positioning, voice. Are we talking about the same things? Branca Telles Ribeiro; 3. Small and large identities in narrative (inter)-action Alexandra Georgakopoulou; 4. From linguistic reference to social reality Deborah Schiffin; Part II. Private and Public Identities: Constructing Who We Are: Editors' Introduction Anna de Fina, Deborah Schiffrin and Michael Bamberg; 5. Identity a la carte: you are what you eat Robin Lakoff; 6. Workplace narratives, professional identity and relational practice Janet Holmes; 7. Identity and personal/institutional relations: people and tragedy in a health insurance customer service Liliana Cabral Bastos and Maria do Carmo Leite de Oliveira; 8. The discursive construction of teacher identities in a research interview Greer Caballaro Johnson; 9. Becoming a mother after DES: intensive mothering in spite of it all Susan Bell; Part III. The Gendered Self: Becoming and Being a Man: Editors' Introduction Anna de Fina, Deborah Schiffrin and Michael Bamberg; 10. Hegemonic identity-making in narrative Scott Kiesling; 11. On being white, heterosexual and male in a Brazilian school: multiple positionings in oral narratives Luiz Paulo Mota-Lopes; 12. Urban fathers positioning themselves through narrative: an approach to narrative self-construction Stanton Wortham and Vivian Gadsden; Part IV. The In-Between Self: Negotiating Person and Place: Editors' introduction Anna de Fina, Deborah Schiffrin and Michael Bamberg; 13. Group identity, narrative and self-representations Anna de Fina; 14. Performing self, family and community in Moroccan narratives of migration and settlement Mike Baynham; 15. Making it personal: shared meanings in the narratives of Holocaust survivors Brian Schiff and Chaim Noy.

The relationship between language, discourse and identity has always been a major area of sociolinguistic investigation, which in recent years has been revolutionized by some pioneering models and approaches. By applying these to numerous social contexts, this volume sheds light on how our social practices help shape our identities.

Anna de Fina is Assistant Professor of Italian Language and Linguistics and Language Program Director, Georgetown University.
Deborah Schiffrin is Professor of Linguistics, Georgetown University.
Michael Bamberg is Professor of Psychology, Clark University.