Dr. Elinor Ochs
(Professor of Anthropology and Applied Linguistics at the University
of California, Los Angeles)
"Everyday Narrative As Sense-making Activity"
Wednesday, April 25th, 2001, 3:00 p.m.
This presentation problematizes the idea that personal narrative
forms a homogeneous genre. Instead, it is pulled between interlocutors'
desire for coherence and their desire to probe enigmatic facets
of experience. The first desire yields relatively seamless storylines,
while the second yields multi-vocal, fluid, discrepant versions
of experience. This paper proposes an approach for analyzing
this narrative continuum, in which narrative varies along five
dimensions: Co-Tellership (one AEAE multiple active tellers),
Tellability (high AEAE low), Embeddedness (detached from оо
embedded in surrounding discourse), Linearity (closed AEAE open
temporal/causal order), and Moral Stance (certain, constant
AEAE uncertain, fluid). Understanding narrative compels going
beyond polished narratives to probe less coherent accounts that
grapple with life experiences and are a hallmark of the human
condition. In developmental research, consistency is equated
with competence, yet conversational narratives of adults and
children alike are typically inconsistent in plot and moral
stance. As a result, many personal narratives can be fruitfully
analyzed as interactionally-constructed accounts of events,
whose contents and ordering are subject to dispute, flux, and
discovery, whose boundaries reach beyond the past to tap present
concerns, and whose plot line may not encompass an end, given
that plot is what interlocutors are attempting to craft and
that life events are not necessarily coherent nor immediately
resolvable. A hybrid perspective -- part social science and
part humanities -- is required to capture these complexities
and fathom the intricate and potent narratives that live within
and among us.
---
Elinor Ochs is currently Professor of Anthropology
and Applied Linguistics at the University of California, Los
Angeles. She is a MacArthur Fellow (1998-2003) and Fellow of
the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1998 - ). Other honors
include: President of the American Association for Applied Linguistics
(1996), President-elect of the Society for Linguistic Anthropology
(2002), Honorary Doctor, Linkoping University (2000), Helsinki
University Rector's Medal of Distinctive Scholarship (1996).
Some of Ochs' books include Acquisition of Conversational
Competence (with B. Schieffellin), Routledge, Kegan, & Paul,
1983; Culture and Language Development, Cambridge University
Press 1988; Constructing Panic (with L. Capps), Harvard
University Press, 1995; Living Narrative (with L. Capps),
Harvard University Press, In Press.
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The MARIAL Center
Emory West, 4th Floor, Room 415E
Open to the public
Refreshments will be served
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Events
DIRECTIONS TO THE MARIAL CENTER
The MARIAL Center is located on the 4th floor
of the main building of Emory West, 1256 Briarcliff Rd. There
is ample parking close to the building. Alternatively, you may
take the Emory shuttle (Route W). The shuttle leaves every half
hour from the main campus and is a 10-minute ride. Route W shuttle
stops are located at the corner of Asbury Circle and Pierce
Drive, along Pierce Drive, and in front of the Administration
Building.
Please tell the receptionist at the front window
that you are here for the MARIAL Center lecture.
