Identity and Situated Discourse Analysis

CARRANZA, ISOLDA E.

Narrative Inquiry

John Benjamins

Lugar: Amsterdam / New York; Año: 2000 p. 151 - 156

1053-6981

The importance of linguistic form cannot be downplayed if we want to ward off free-for-all hermeneutics or a common-sense paraphrase of the ideational content of the texts. Analysis is also concerned with non-linguistic dimensions of the social encounter. Discourse analysis has dealt with identity in two planes: The Self in its uniqueness, with an experiential trajectory of its own, and the Self as membership to multiple social groups. Ascription of the Self to social roles, social positions and variously defined social groups proves to be dynamic, multiple, containing contradictions and overlapping. Next, the social interaction in which the text is produced has long been a favorite center of attention, and in this regard, the crucial question the analysis should answer is ?What does this particular individual activate and construct a given identity for?? There are important issues, however, that analysis restricted to the interaction cannot deal with. For example, the contrast between social identities, the role identities have in the reproduction and legitimation of social institutions, and the culturally defined elements in identity practices. One step in this direction is consideration of intertextuality and interdiscursivity. Richer and more complete analyses are achieved when we identify the other discourses woven into the texture of the data and when we take into account the broader conditions of production, including social structures and relations of power between social actors.