�I am a queen�: (Re)fashioning African female identities in everyday storytelling
Loading...
Date
2018
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of the Western Cape
Abstract
This study aims to add to the rich body of work which explores our understanding of identity
performances in narratives. It explores how a close knit group of five female friends use
narrative structure and strategies to fashion alternative gender identities for themselves as
black women who are agentive, and who actively push back against the stereotypes used to
judge and evaluate their behavior. Using an interactional approach to narrative and identity
(De Fina, 2003; De Fina and Georgakopoulou, 2008, 2012), this study explores how
participants, in their everyday conversations, exploit story form and narrative strategies to
orient to, constitute, legitimize or resist gender ideologies. Drawing on data which consist of
twenty-one hours of naturally occurring casual conversation between the five friends, I
identify and group the stories in their conversations, and propose generic structures to
describe them: reports, hypothetical stories and projections. With a flexible approach to
structure, I show how these stories create a space for the negotiation of difference or for
constructing presentations of �self� versus �the other�. I argue that through structure and other
evaluative devices, praise and blame are ascribed within stories, allowing participants to take
certain positions in relation to the themes explored and relevant identity options. I also show
the ways in which stories enable the participants to quite literally imagine possibilities for
self and others within circumstances that have not and and may never happen. This creates a
space for the affirmation of dreams and ambitions, and an exploration of the type of women
they see themselves becoming: successful, rich, famous, strong, and admired African women.
Description
Magister Artium - MA
Keywords
Identities, Narrative, Positioning, Small stories, African