Special issue section
“I am an adult now”
Re-storying an ‘abuse’ narrative through categorization
This narrative-based study employs membership categorization analysis to address the following question: How does
a victim of abuse formulate and manage various categories and related descriptive details to story past trauma in ways that bring
about new endings or insights in the present? Drawing on data taken from a larger research project on immigrant identity, the analysis
centers on a Cambodian-Vietnamese man’s narrative of childhood abuse and adulthood confrontation. It shows how the teller, by
recalibrating person (e.g., ‘father-son’, ‘victim-abuser’), age (e.g., ‘young-old’),
place (e.g., ‘North America-Vietnam’), and other categorial resources, re-stories people and events and their
psycho-social and moral inferences and outcomes. By tracing how this narrative teller reconstitutes himself from ‘victim’ to
‘hero’, this study offers insight into how a local interactional event (e.g., a research interview) may be transformed into a
therapeutic exchange. Insights for therapeutic (re)storying, narrative research, and second language (L2) research are
discussed.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Selective review of the literature
- 2.1Narratives
- 2.2Research interviewing and ‘therapy’
- 2.3Troubles talk, trauma, and immigrant narratives
- 2.4Membership categorization analysis
- 2.5Doing Being “ordinary” and “extraordinary”
- 2.6Categorization and therapy
- 3.The study
- 3.1The research context
- 3.2The participants
- 3.3The focal narrative
- 4.Analysis
- 4.1Categorization as part of framing and launching the narrative
- 4.1.1Framing the narrative
- 4.1.2Launching the narrative
- 4.2Categorization as part of formulating and confronting abuse and transgressive actions
- 4.2.1‘Abuse’
- 4.2.2‘Stage of life’
- 4.2.3Categorizing place
- 4.3Categorization as part of closing the narrative and managing its therapeutic upshot
- 5.Concluding comments
- Notes
-
References
References (79)
Adler, Jonathan M., Joshua W. Wagner, and Dan P. McAdams
2007 “
Personality and the Coherence of Psychotherapy Narratives.”
Journal of Research in Personality 411: 1179–1198.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Atkinson, Paul, and David Silverman
1997 “
Kundera’s Immortality: The Interview Society and the Invention of the Self.”
Qualitative Inquiry 31: 304–325.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Baker, Carolyn D.
2004 “
Membership Categorization and Interview Accounts.” In
Qualitative Research: Theory, Method and Practice (2nd edition), ed. by
David Silverman, 162–176. London: SAGE.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bamberg, Michael, Anna De Fina, & Deborah Schiffrin
2011 “
Discourse and Identity Construction.” In
Handbook of Identity Theory and Research, ed. by
Seth J. Schwartz,
Koen Luyckx, and
Vivian Vignoles, 177–199. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Boden, Deirdre, and Don H. Zimmerman
(eds) 1991 Talk and Social Structure: Studies in Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis, Berkeley: University of California Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Brinkmann, Svend, and Steinar Kvale
2008 “
Ethics in Qualitative Psychological Research.” In
The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research in Psychology, ed. by
Carla Willig and
Wendy Stainton-Rogers, 263–279. London: SAGE.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Buttny, Richard
1993 Social Accountability in Communication. London: SAGE.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Chase, Liana, and Ram P. Sapkota
2017 “
‘In Our Community, a Friend is a Psychologist’: An Ethnographic Study of Informal Care in Two Bhutanese Refugee Communities.”
Transcultural Psychiatry 54 (3): 400–422.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Couper-Kuhlen, Elizabeth
2007 “
Assessing and Accounting.” In
Reporting Talk: Reported Speech in Interaction, ed. by
Rebecca Clift and
Elizabeth Holt, 81–119. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Couper-Kuhlen, Elizabeth
2009 “
A Sequential Approach to Affect: The Case of ‘Disappointment’.” In
Talk in Interaction: Comparative Dimensions, ed. by
Markku Haakana,
Minna Laakso, and
Jan Lindstrom, 94–123. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Coupland, Nikolas, Jon F. Nussbaum, and Alan Grossman
1993 “
Introduction: Discourse, Selfhood, and the Lifespan.” In
Discourse and Lifespan Identity, ed. by
Nikolas Coupland and
Jon F. Nussbaum, x–xxviii. London: SAGE.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cuff, Edward C.
1993 Problems of Versions in Everyday Situations. Washington, D.C.: University Press of America.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Drew, Paul
1998 “
Complaints about Transgressions and Misconduct.”
Research on Language and Social Interaction 31 (3–4): 295–325.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Edwards, Derek
1997 Discourse and Cognition. London: SAGE.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Edwards, Derek
2005 “
Moaning, Whinging, and Laughing: The Subjective Side of Complaints.”
Discourse Studies 7 (1): 5–29.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Edwards, Derek, and Jonathan Potter
2005 “
Discursive Psychology, Mental States and Descriptions.” In
Conversation and Cognition, ed. by
Hedwig te Molder and
Jonathan Potter, 241–259. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Edwards, Derek, and Elizabeth Stokoe
Fancher, Tonya L., Hendrey Ton, Oanh Le Meyer, Thuan Ho, and Debora A. Paterniti
2010 “
Discussing Depression with Vietnamese American Patients.”
Journal of Immigrant Minority Health 121: 263–266.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ferrara, Kathleen W.
1994 Therapeutic Ways with Words. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Fitzgerald, Richard, and William Housley
2015 Advances in Membership Categorization Analysis. London: SAGE.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Frankel, Richard M.
1995 “
Some Answers about Questions in Clinical Interviews.” In
The Talk of the Clinic: Explorations in the Analysis of Medical and Therapeutic Discourse, ed. by
George H. Morris and
Ronald J. Chenail, 49–70. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Gafaranga, Joseph
2005 “
Demythologising Language Alternation Studies: Conversational Structure vs. Social Structure in Bilingual Interaction.”
Journal of Pragmatics 371: 281–300.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Giddens, Anthony
1991 Modernity and Self-Identity. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Goffman, Erving
1981 Forms of Talk. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Gordon, Daryl
2011 Trauma and second language learning among Laotian refugees.
Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement 61: 1–14.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Halonen, Mia
2008 “
Person Reference as a Device for Constructing Experiences as Typical in Group Therapy.” In
Conversation Analysis and Psychotherapy, ed. by
Anssi Peräkylä,
Charles Antaki,
Sanna Vehviläinen, and
Ivan Leudar, 139–151. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hepburn, Alexa, and Sally Wiggins
(eds) 2007 Discursive Research in Practice: New Approaches to Psychology and Interaction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Heritage, John
2011 “
Territories of Knowledge, Territories of Experience: Empathic Moments in Interaction.” In
The Morality of Knowledge in Conversation, ed. by
Tanya Stivers,
Lorenza Mondada, and
Jakob Steensig, 159–183. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Heritage, John
2013 “
Epistemics in Conversation.” In
The Handbook of Conversation Analysis, ed. by
Jack Sidnell and
Tanya Stivers, 370–394. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hester, Stephen, and Peter Eglin
(eds) 1997 Culture in Action: Studies in Membership Categorization Analysis. Washington, D.C.: International Institute for Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis and University Press of America.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Holstein, James A., and Jaber F. Gubrium
2012 Varieties of Narrative Analysis. London: SAGE.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Housley, William, and Richard Fitzgerald
2009 Membership Categorization, Culture and Norms of Action.
Discourse & Society 20 (3): 345–362.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hutchby, Ian, and Robin Wooffitt
2008 Conversation Analysis. Oxford: Polity Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Jacquemet, Marco
2005 “
The Registration Interview: Restricting Refugees’ Narrative Performances.” In
Dislocations/Relocations: Narratives of Displacement, ed. by
Mike Baynham and
Anna De Fina, 197–220. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Jakobson, Roman
1957/1971 “
Shifters, Verbal Categories and the Russian Verb.” In
Roman Jakobson, Selected Writings, vol. 21, 130–147. The Hague: Mouton.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Jayyusi, Lena
1984 Categorization and the Moral Order. London: Routledge.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Jayyusi, Lena
1991 “
Values and Moral Judgement.” In
Ethnomethodology and the Human Sciences, ed. by
Graham Button, 227–251. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Jefferson, Gail
1988 “
On the Sequential Organization of Troubles-Talk in Ordinary Conversation.”
Social Problems 35 (4): 418–441.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Jefferson, Gail, Harvey Sacks, and Emanuel A. Schegloff
1987 “
Notes on Laughter in the Pursuit of Intimacy.” In
Talk and Social Organisation, ed. by
Graham Button and
John R. E. Lee, 152–205. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Labov, William
1972 Socioloinguistic Patterns. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lambrou, Marina
2014 “
Narrative, Text and Time: Telling the Same Story Twice in the Oral Narrative Reporting of 7/7.”
Language and Literature 23 (1): 32–48.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Liddicoat, Anthony J.
2011 An Introduction to Conversation Analysis (2nd edition). New York: Continuum.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Longmire, B. Jean
1995 “
Cambodian Narratives of Personal Experience.” In
Papers from the Third Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society, ed. by
Mark Alves, 129–144. Tempe, Ariz.: Program for Southeast Asian Studies, Arizona State University.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Marshall, Grant N., Terry Schell, Marc N. Elliott, S. Megan Berthold, and Chi-Ah Chuh
2005 “
Mental Health of Cambodian Refugees Two Decades After Resettlement in the United States.”
Journal of American Medical Association 294 (5): 571–579.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Maynard, Douglas
1991 “
Interaction and Asymmetry in Clinical Discourse.”
American Journal of Sociology 97 (2), 448–495.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Mazeland, Harrie
2007 “
Parenthetical Sequences.”
Journal of Pragmatics 391: 1816–1869.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
McGuire, Kathleen N.
1991 “
Affect in Focusing and Experiential Psychotherapy.” In
Emotion, Psychotherapy, and Change, ed. by
Jeremy D. Safran and
Leslie S. Greenberg, 227–251. New York: Guilford Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Menard-Warwick, Julia
2009 Gendered Identities and Immigrant Language Learning. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Mishler, Elliot G.
2006 “
Narrative and Identity: The Double Arrow of Time.” In
Discourse and Identity, ed. by
Anna De Fina,
Debra Schiffrin, and
Michael Bamberg, 30–47. New York: Cambridge University Press.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Peräkylä, Anssi, Charles Antaki, Sanna Vehviläinen, and Ivan Leudar
(eds) 2008 Conversation Analysis and Psychotherapy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Peräkylä, Anssi, and Marja-Leena Sorjonen
2012 Emotion in Interaction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Pomerantz, Anita
1986 “
Extreme-Case Formulations: A Way of Legitimizing Claims.”
Human Studies 9 (2/3): 219–229.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Potter, Jonathan, and Alexa Hepburn
2012 “
Eight Challenges for Interview Researchers.” In
The SAGE Handbook of Interview Research: The Complexity of the Craft (2nd edition), ed. by
Jaber F. Gubrium,
James A. Holstein,
Amir B. Marvasti, and
Karyn D. McKinney, 555–570. London: SAGE.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Prior, Matthew T.
2016 Emotion and Discourse in L2 Narrative Research. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Pumariega, Andres J., Eugenio Rothe, and JoAnne B. Pumariega
2005 “
Mental Health of Immigrants and Refugees.”
Community Mental Health Journal 41 (5): 581–597.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Roulston, Kathryn
2010 Reflective Interviewing: A Guide to Theory and Practice. London: SAGE.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Sacks, Harvey
1992 Lectures on Conversation. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Sarangi, Srikant
2003 “
Institutional, Professional, and Lifeworld Frames in Interview Talk.” In
Analyzing Race Talk: Multidisciplinary Approaches to the Interview, ed. by
Harry van den Berg,
Margaret Wetherell, and
Hanneke Houtkoop-Steenstra, 64–84. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Schegloff, Emanuel A.
2007 “
A Tutorial on Membership Categorization.”
Journal of Pragmatics 391: 462–482.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Schiffrin, Deborah
2002 “
Mother and Friends in a Holocaust Life Story.”
Language in Society 311: 309–353.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Seidman, Irving
2013 Interviewing as Qualitative Research: A Guide for Researchers in Education and the Social Sciences. New York: Teachers College Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Shuman, Amy
2005 Other People’s Stories Entitlement Claims and the Critique of Empathy. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Sidnell, Jack, and Tanya Stivers
(eds) 2013 The Handbook of Conversation Analysis. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Silverman, David
2001 “
The Construction of ‘Delicate’ Objects in Counselling.” In
Discourse Theory and Practice: A Reader, ed. by
Margaret Wetherell,
Stephanie Taylor, and
Simon J. Yates, 119–137. London: SAGE.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Stivers, Tanya, Lorenza Mondada, and Jakob Steensig
(eds) 2011 The Morality of Knowledge in Conversation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Stokoe, Elizabeth
2012 “
Moving Forward with Membership Categorization Analysis: Methods for Systematic Analysis.”
Discourse Studies 14 (3): 277–303.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Talmy, Steven, and Keith Richards
(eds) 2011 “
Qualitative Interviews in Applied Linguistics: Discursive Perspectives”
Applied Linguistics 32 (1): 1–128 [Special Issue].
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
van den Berg, Harry, Margaret Wetherell, and Hanneke Houtkoop-Steenstra
(eds) 2003 Analyzing Race Talk: Multidisciplinary Approaches to the Interview. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
White, Michael, and David Epston
1990 Narrative Means to Therapeutic Ends. London: W.W. Norton & Company.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Wiggins, Sally
2017 Discursive Psychology: Theory, Method and Applications. London: SAGE.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Wooffitt, Robin
1992 Telling Tales of the Unexpected: The Organization of Factual Discourse. Hertfordshire: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Wooffitt, Robin, and Sue Widdicombe
2006 “
Interaction in Interviews.” In
Talk and Interaction in Social Research Methods, ed. by
Paul Drew,
Geoffrey Raymond, and
Darin Weinberg, 28–49. London: SAGE.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Zimmerman, Don H.
1998 “
Identity, Context and Interaction.” In
Identities in Talk, ed. by
Charles Antaki and
Sue Widdicombe, 87–106. London: SAGE.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cited by (3)
Cited by 3 other publications
Theodórsdóttir, Guðrún
2024.
Not-knowing as membership knowledge. The mediation of sociocultural facts through storytelling.
Nordand 19:1
► pp. 3 ff.
![DOI logo](//benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
Diebold, Josal, Mickey Sperlich, Elyse Heagle, Whitney Marris & Susan Green
2021.
Trauma Talks: Exploring Personal Narratives of Trauma-Informed Care through Podcasting.
Journal of Technology in Human Services 39:1
► pp. 1 ff.
![DOI logo](//benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
Lee, Yo-An & John Hellermann
2020.
Managing language issue in second language storytelling.
System 93
► pp. 102311 ff.
![DOI logo](//benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 14 june 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.