Cover not available
Part of
Language and Violence: Pragmatic perspectives
Edited by Daniel N. Silva
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 279] 2017
► pp. 227–248

Chapter 9
Discursive constructions of deviance in the narratives of a prison inmate

This chapter aims at identifying a specific type of discourse about violence: the stories of adherence to drug trafficking, their emergence in the research context and the processes of identity construction resulting from said context. The data comes from fieldwork done during 2009 in one of the main prison institutions in Brazil. Interviews were realized with inmate members of Rio de Janeiro criminal gangs who attended the prison school. These interviews were then qualitatively analyzed, from a micro-perspective approach, in light both of studies on oral narratives, based on interactional sociolinguistics, and of identity studies, especially those which consider narrative discourse as a privileged locus for social identity construction and analysis. From the analysis of the narratives’ structure systems of coherence, it was possible to understand the way in which inmates neutralize the force of values and of accepting order so as to give new meaning to deviant actions, as being pleasant or respectable.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Identity and discourse
  • 3.Deviant identity
  • 4.Narrative Analysis
  • 5.A brief contextualization of the data
  • 6.The beginning of José’s involvement in drug trafficking: Sequentialities and causalities
    • 6.1The mitigation of agentivity
    • 6.2The “agenda” of the interview and the observer’s paradox
  • 7.Final considerations
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
Published online: 9 November 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.279.10bia
References (27)
References
Bastos, Liliana C. 2005. “Contando estórias em contextos espontâneos e institucionais – uma introdução ao estudo da narrativa [Telling Stories in Spontaneous and Institutional Contexts – An Introduction to the Study of Narrative].” Calidoscópio 3 (2): 74–87.Google Scholar
Bastos, Liliana Cabral. 2008. “Diante do sofrimento do outro – narrativas de profissionais de saúde em reuniões de trabalho. [Before the Pain of the Other – Health Care Professionals’ Narratives in the Workplace]” Calidoscópio 6 (2): 76–85.Google Scholar
Becker, H. 2008 [1963]. Outsiders: Estudos da sociologia do desvio . Rio de Janeiro: Zahar (English: Becker, Howard. 1963. Outsiders: Studies in the Sociology of Deviance. New York: The Free Press.)Google Scholar
Biar, Liana. 2015. “Trabalho de face e estigma no encontro interacional misto: um estudo de polidez aplicado ao contexto prisional [Workface and Stigma in the Hybrid Interactional Encounter: An Study of Politeness Applied to the Prision Context].” Linguistica (Madrid) 31: 127–145.Google Scholar
Bucholtz, Mary, and Kira Hall. 2004. “Language and Identity.” In A Companion to Linguistic Anthropology, ed. by Alessandro Duranti, 268–294. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Bruner, Jerome. 1990. Acts of Meaning. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Butler, Judith. 1990. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Duranti, Alessadro. 2004. “Agency in Language.” In A Companion to Linguistic Anthropology, ed. by Alessandro Duranti. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel. 1977. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Transl. Alan Sheridan. New York: Pantheon Books.Google Scholar
Gergen, Kenneth. 1985. “The Social Construcionist Movement in Modern Psychology.” American Psychologist 40: 266–275. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Goffman, Erving. 1959. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Anchor Books.Google Scholar
. 1961. Asylums: Essays on the Social Situations of Mental Patients and Other Inmates. New York: Doubleday Anchor.Google Scholar
. 1963. Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. New York: Simon & Schuster, Inc.Google Scholar
Grice, Paul. 1989. “Logic and Conversation.” In Studies in the Way of Words, 22–40. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Hall, Stuart. 1992. “The Question of Cultural Identity.” In Modernity and its Futures, ed. by Stuart Hall, David Held, and Anthony McGrew, 274–316. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Ibanez, Tomas 1994. “Constructing a Representation or Representing a Construction?” Theory and Psychology 4: 363–81. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Labov, William, and Joshua Waletsky. 1967. “Narrative Analysis: Oral Versions of Personal Experience.” In Essays on the Verbal and Visual Arts, ed. by June Helm et al., 12–44. Seattle: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Labov, William. 1972. “The Transformation of Experience in Narrative Syntax.” In Language in the Inner City, páginas. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
. 1973. Sociolinguistic Patterns. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Linde, Charlotte. 1993. Life Stories. The Creation of Coherence. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Mishler, Elliot. 1986. Research Interviewing: Context and Narrative. Boston: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
. 2002. “Narrativa e identidade: a mão dupla do tempo [Narrative and Identity: The Two-Way Road of Time].” In Identidades: recortes multi e interdisciplinares [Identities: Multi- and Interdisciplinary Approaches], ed. by Luiz Paulo da Moita Lopes, and Liliana Cabral Bastos, páginas. Campinas, SP: Mercado de Letras.Google Scholar
Misse, Michel, and Joana D. Vargas. 2010. “Drug Use and Trafficking in Rio de Janeiro: Some Remarks on Harm Reduction Policies.” Vibrant 7 (2): 88–108.Google Scholar
Moita Lopes, Luiz Paulo. 2002. Identidades fragmentadas [Fragmented Identities]. Campinas: Mercado das Letras.Google Scholar
Schiffrin, Deborah. 1996. “Narrative as Self-Portrait: Sociolinguistic Constructions of Identity.” Language in Society 25: 167–203. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sykes, Gresham, and David Matza. 1957. “Techniques of Neutralization: A Theory of Delinquency.” American Sociological Review 22: 664–670. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Velho, Gilberto (ed.). 1974. Desvio e Divergência: uma crítica da patologia social [Deviation and Divergence: A Critique of the Social Pathology]. Rio de Janeiro: Jorge Zahar Editores.Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Biar, Liana de Andrade, Naomi Orton & Liliana Cabral Bastos
2021. Tales from the South. Narrative Inquiry 31:1 ► pp. 126 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 23 december 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.