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Article published In:
Narrative Inquiry
Vol. 28:2 (2018) ► pp.237–256

Affect as narrative action in the Global South

An analysis of small stories about transnational same-sex relationships in Cambodia

| Hong Kong Baptist University

This paper focuses on the performance of small stories from two Cambodian men interviewed by the researcher about the relationships they form with men from the Global North. The analysis attends to the empirical significance of these performances by focusing on the mobilization of affect as an interactional linguistic and narrative resource that foregrounds social action in this context. In this way, these small stories reveal how these men may challenge and reshape dominant social discourses at this sexualised North/South interface. Bringing to the field of narrative inquiry approaches from queer linguistics, and Southern perspectives, this paper is therefore tasked with exploring what the field may potentially gain from these areas, especially regarding the theoretical and methodological possibilities of a North/South dialogue in the production of knowledge.

Keywords: Cambodia, transnational same-sex relationships, affect, practices, queer linguistics, Southern perspectives, North/South intersections, small stories, narrative analysis, discourse analysis
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Queer linguistics and “seeing from the South”
  • The study in context
  • Methodological approach
  • Analytical approach
    • A focus on small stories
    • Affect as narrative action
  • Analysis
    • Extract 1
    • Extract 2
  • Concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgements
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 19 October 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.17062.row
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