In:Less Frequently Used Research Methodologies in Applied Linguistics
Edited by A. Mehdi Riazi
[Research Methods in Applied Linguistics 6] 2024
► pp. 206–223
Chapter 13Narrative inquiry
Case studies from Senegal and Northern Italy
Published online: 5 January 2024
https://doi.org/10.1075/rmal.6.13per
https://doi.org/10.1075/rmal.6.13per
Abstract
This chapter describes how narratives can be
useful analytical and methodological tools through a close
analysis of two narrative excerpts that I collected in Senegal
and Northern Italy. Both examples examine how certain
interactional patterns, such as participant transposition and
the co-construction of individuals’ identities and stances, are
enacted and sustained in storytelling practices. These patterns
would not emerge if narratives were not considered as situated
speech events in which speech participants’ interactional moves
(“interactional text”) are as important as the narrative content
(“denotational text”). It is thanks to this
narratives-as-practices approach, versus the more traditional
narratives-as-texts approach, that scholars are able to unveil
participants’ interactional dynamics. The two case studies,
moreover, are fully contextualized and situated.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.An overview of the study
- 3.Why was narrative inquiry used? How was it implemented?
- 4.What challenges were faced? How were the challenges addressed?
- 5.Insights gained
- 6.Conclusions
Notes References Appendix
References (36)
Bailey, B. (2000). Social/interactional
functions of code-switching among Dominican
Americans. Pragmatics, 10(2), 165–193.
Basso, K. H. (1979). Portraits
of “The Whiteman”: Linguistic play and cultural
symbols among the western
Apache. Cambridge University Press.
Briggs, C. L. (1986). Learning
how to ask: A sociolinguistic appraisal of the role
of the interview in social science
research. Cambridge University Press.
De Fina, A., & Georgakopoulou, A. (2012). Analyzing
narrative: Discourse and sociolinguistic
perspectives. Cambridge University Press.
Duranti, A., & Goodwin, C. (1992). Rethinking
context: Language as an interactive
phenomenon. Cambridge University Press.
Ephratt, M. (2022). Silence
as language: Verbal silence as a means of
expression. Cambridge University Press.
Heller, M. (1988). Codeswitching:
Anthropological and sociolinguistic
perspectives. Mouton de Gruyter.
Irvine, J. T. (1989). Strategies
of status manipulation in the Wolof
greeting. In R. Bauman & J. Sherzer (Eds.), Explorations
in the ethnography of
speaking (pp. 167–191). Cambridge University Press.
Jakobson, R. (1957). Shifters
and verbal
categories. In L. R. Waugh & M. Monville-Burston (Eds.), On
language (pp. 386–392). Harvard University Press.
Labov, W., & Waletzky, J. (1967). Narrative
analysis: Oral versions of personal
experience. Journal
of Narrative & Life
History, 7(1–4), 3–38.
Nakane, I. (2012). Silence. In C. Bratt Paulston, S. F. Kiesling, & E. S. Rangel (Eds.), The
handbook of intercultural discourse and
communication (pp. 82–85). Wiley Blackwell.
Perrino, S. (2002). Intimate
hierarchies and Qur’anic Saliva (Tëfli): Textuality
in a Senegalese ethnomedical
encounter. Journal of
Linguistic
Anthropology, 12(2), 225–259.
Perrino, S. M. (2005). Participant
transposition in Senegalese oral
narrative. Narrative
Inquiry, 15(2), 345–375.
(2006). Senegalese
ethnomedicine: A linguistic and ethnographic study
of medical modernities between Senegal and
Italy. University of Pennsylvania.
Perrino, S. (2007). Cross-chronotope
alignment in Senegalese oral
narrative. Language
and
Communication, 27(3), 227–244.
(2015). Performing
extracomunitari: Mocking migrants in Veneto
Barzellette. Language
in
Society, 44(2), 141–160.
(2021a). Narratives
as discursive practices in interviews: A linguistic
anthropological
approach. Narrative
Inquiry, 31(1), 72–96.
Perrino, S. M. (2021b). Embodied
dread in COVID-19 images and
narratives. Life
Writing, 18(4), 579–592.
(2022). Interviews
in linguistic
anthropology. In S. M. Perrino & S. E. Pritzker (Eds.), Research
methods in linguistic
anthropology (pp. 159–195). Bloomsbury Academic.
Perrino, S. M., & Pritzker, S. E. (Eds.). (2022). Research
methods in linguistic
anthropology. Bloomsbury Academic.
Shohet, M., & Loyd, H. (2022). Transcription
and analysis in linguistic anthropology: Creating,
testing, and presenting theory on the
page. In S. M. Perrino & S. E. Pritzker (Eds.), Research
methods in linguistic
anthropology (pp. 261–295). Bloomsbury Academic.
Silverstein, M. (1998). Improvisational
performance of culture in realtime discursive
practice. In K. Sawyer (Ed.), Creativity
in
performance (pp. 265–312). Ablex.
(2007). Talking
voices: Repetition, dialogue, and imagery in
conversational
discourse. Cambridge University Press.
(2012). Turn-Taking
and intercultural discourse and
communication. In C. B. Paulston, S. F. Kiesling & E. S. Rangel (Eds.), The
handbook of intercultural discourse and
communication (pp. 135–157). Wiley Blackwell.
Wilce, J. M. (2001). Divining
troubles, or divining troubles? Emergent and
conflictual dimensions of Bangladeshi
divination. Anthropological
Quarterly, 74(4), 190–200.
Woolard, K. A. (1995). Changing
forms of codeswitching in Catalan
comedy. Catalan
Review, IX(2), 223–252.
Wortham, S. (2000). Interactional
positioning and narrative
self-construction. Narrative
Inquiry, 10(1), 157–184.
