Article published In:
Pragmatics and SocietyVol. 4:3 (2013) ► pp.345–368
Narrating fragile stories about HIV/AIDS in South Africa
This article analyzes narratives about living with HIV/ AIDS amid stigma, using the notion of “fragile stories” to further detail the linguistic practices through which people narrate experiences in danger of not being told. The article is based on fieldwork in 2008 in Durban, South Africa with a Zulu gospel choir in which all group members are living with HIV/AIDS. Close analysis of recorded narratives demonstrates how institutional story frameworks and the normative performance of gender helped storytellers to breach boundaries drawn by stigma. The article consolidates research on narrative tellability and fragile stories, verbal art, and stigma. The article has implications for research amid stigma, advocating linguistic analysis of narrative to emphasize the relationship between stories told and life events involving stigmatization.
Keywords: South Africa, Zulu, verbal art, stigma, HIV/AIDS, fragile stories, narrative
Cited by
Cited by 21 other publications
Black, Steven P.
2013. Stigma and ideological constructions of the foreign: Facing HIV/AIDS in South Africa. Language in Society 42:5 ► pp. 481 ff. 
Black, Steven P.
2014. The intersubjective space–time of a Zulu choir/HIV support group in global perspective. Social Semiotics 24:4 ► pp. 381 ff.
Black, Steven P.
2015. The Morality of Performance: HIV Disclosure in Speech and Song in South Africa. Ethos 43:3 ► pp. 247 ff.
Black, Steven P.
2018. The Ethics and Aesthetics of Care. Annual Review of Anthropology 47:1 ► pp. 79 ff.
Black, Steven P.
2023. Ethics and Language. In A New Companion to Linguistic Anthropology, ► pp. 299 ff.
Black, Steven P. & Elizabeth A. Falconi
2017. Linguistic Anthropology and Ethnolinguistics. In The Handbook of Linguistics, ► pp. 479 ff.
Mey, Jacob L.
2016. Twenty-Seven Views (Plus One) of Language Socialization. In Interdisciplinary Studies in Pragmatics, Culture and Society [Perspectives in Pragmatics, Philosophy & Psychology, 4], ► pp. 961 ff.
Reece, Koreen M.
2023. Telling Families, Telling AIDS: Narratives of Crisis in Botswana. Ethnos 88:5 ► pp. 972 ff.
Samuels, Annemarie
2018. “This Path Is Full of Thorns”: Narrative, Subjunctivity, and HIV in Indonesia. Ethos 46:1 ► pp. 95 ff.
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2017. The Crossing. In Dust of the Zulu, ► pp. 151 ff.
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2017. The Digital Homestead. In Dust of the Zulu, ► pp. 210 ff.
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2017. Turning to Be Kissed. In Dust of the Zulu, ► pp. 28 ff.
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2017. Feet of the Centipede. In Dust of the Zulu, ► pp. 94 ff.
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2017. Closing. In Dust of the Zulu, ► pp. 266 ff.
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2017. References. In Dust of the Zulu, ► pp. 307 ff.
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2017. To Quell the Dancer’s Dust. In Dust of the Zulu, ► pp. 124 ff.
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2017. Dancing Around Disease. In Dust of the Zulu, ► pp. 182 ff.
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2017. Introduction. In Dust of the Zulu, ► pp. 1 ff.
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2017. The Unwavering Voice. In Dust of the Zulu, ► pp. 62 ff.
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