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 <narrating>
– stories-in-interaction (= “small stories”) as ‘navigating’
through ‘interactive trouble’
– stories are situated actions <with selves in interaction>
 where selves (identities) come to existence
 Ritualized 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
<as mundane activity>
– interactive operations
– <as “identity confrontations/negotiations”>
– discursive resources
– <the rhetorical means to CONSTRUCT stories>
– Discursive POSITIONS <positioning analysis>
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’
QuickTime™ and a
DV/DVCPRO - NTSC decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
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
QuickTime™ and a
DV/DVCPRO - NTSC decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Moderator question: “what do YOU boys find attractive in
girls?”
– borrowing ‘a friend’ and ‘a girl’ <characters IN the story>
<positioning these characters vis-à-vis each other>
• Positioning level 1
– borrowing another ‘speaker’ <turning to audience +
positioning them as ‘speakers’> <letting THEM ‘voice’
and perform the problem/trouble>
• Positioning level 2
– borrowing ‘Shaggy’ <claiming + performing Shaggy’s
identity> <but why?>
• 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
<navigating vulnerability>
• more complex issues:
• There are cues orienting toward the project at work
that this isn’t meant to be taken seriously <false
compliance - parody -- detaching himself - mimicking>
• 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” <work with contradictions>
What can we take from all this?
• Emergent identity
• Identities as plural
• Identities as always ‘hedged’ or ‘doubleedged’
• SMALL STORIES is where the action is
Kind of conclusion
• So rather than assuming the existence of
identity + sense of self <as resources> --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 <‘sensitivity’>
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