Catechism, Raincoats, and Refrigerators: Story Rounds and the Discursive Construction of Personal and Shared Identities in One Extended Family

Abstract

In this study, I employ discourse analytic and interactional sociolinguistic theories and methods to analyze a round of stories shared amongst a group of my extended family members following a family meal during the Thanksgiving holidays. Specifically, I examine how turn-taking, co-narration, and positioning are accomplished through participants’ uses of constructed dialogue, repetition, overlap, silence, and laughter. In doing so, I demonstrate how conversational stories told in a round act as a particularly rich context for family members to co-construct their personal identities as well as a set of shared family identities, whether these shared identities belong to a small subset of family members or to the extended family group as a whole.