13th Congress of the International Society for Folk Narrative Research

Presentation Abstracts

WINTER, Joanne

The Discursive Construction of an 'Irish' Matriarch in the Talk of Three Generations of Family

This paper reports on the discursive construction of a family myth of the ‘progressive gran’ and identities of ‘Irishness’, family and change. The analysis highlights the private or ‘backstage/rehearsal’ performance of the rebellious, defiant woman and her location at the heart (and head) of the family. In particular the discussion focuses on the telling and retelling of familial narrative to strangers (researchers) and family members and friends. The woman of the myth is the grandmother and third generation descendant of an Irish immigrant family to the southwest coastal region of Victoria. The family members who participate in the performance of the identities discourse include the third to the fifth generations of the family. Synthesising a sociolinguistic discourse/historical approach (Wodak et al 1999, Wodak 2000) with Goffman’s (1981) concepts of frame and footing facilitates the analysis of the discourse meanings constructed in the family members’ narratives. The analysis reveals the ways in which the matriarch is co-constructed by family members and in her own talk through the animation of other family members’ voices and the authoring of authenticity and Irishness. Further, the use of humour for subversion, resistance and maintenance of the myth in the context of change(s) is explored in the family narratives.
References:
Goffman. E. 1981. Forms of talk. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Wodak, R. 2000. The discursive construction of multiple identities: Ideological gender conflicts and dilemmas with EU parliamentarians. Paper presented at the Fourth Nordic Language and Gender conference, University of Goteborg, Sweden.
Wodak, R., de Cillia, Rudolph, Reisigl, Martin and Liebhart, Karin 1999. The discursive construction of national identity. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.