Master Narratives, Identities, and the Stories of Former Slaves
This book is intended for researchers in the field of narrative from post-graduate level onwards. It analyzes the audio-recordings of the narratives of former slaves from the American South which are now publically available on the Library of Congress website: Voices from the days of slavery. More specifically, this book analyses the identity work of these former slaves and considers how these identities are related to master narratives. The novelty of this book is that through using such a temporally diverse and relatively large corpus, we show how master narratives change according to both the zeitgeist of the here-and-now of the interview world and the historical period that is related in the there-and-then of the story world. Moreover, focusing on the active achievement of master narratives as socially-situated co-constructed discursive accomplishments we analyze how different, inherently unstable and even contradictory versions of master narratives are enacted.
[Studies in Narrative, 22] 2016. viii, 229 pp.
Publishing status: Available
Published online on 18 March 2016
Published online on 18 March 2016
© John Benjamins
Table of Contents
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Chapter 1. Introduction: Identity, narrative and context | pp. 1–14
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Chapter 2. The slave narratives: A historical background | pp. 15–38
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Chapter 3. Narratives and the historical context of the interview: Heroes and villains in narratives of law and order | pp. 39–68
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Chapter 4. Different ‘slave-as-animal’-identities vis-à-vis different ‘historical’ and current dominant discourses* | pp. 69–92
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Chapter 5. The white supremacy master narrative as an oeuvre civilisatrice: Navigating identities along the sameness-difference dimension | pp. 93–112
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Chapter 6. An emic view on intertwined counter- and master-narratives of race, obedience, and religion | pp. 113–148
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Chapter 7. Remembering and forgetting: Master narratives and memories of violence | pp. 149–172
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Chapter 8. Truth, falsehood, and master narratives: The case of Charlie Smith and the fritter tree | pp. 173–194
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Chapter 9. Conclusions | pp. 195–210
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References | pp. 211–224
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Appendix | pp. 225–226
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Index | pp. 227–229
“Bringing together the close analysis of talk in interview and the investigation into dominant discourses about race, slavery and human (in)equality, Jonathan Clifton and Dorien Van De Mieroop offer a unique glimpse into the way former slaves in the US constructed identities and past lives in their own voice. This fascinating study speaks once again to the power of narratives as tools for understanding, sharing and negotiating human experience.”
Anna De Fina, Georgetown University
“A brave and compelling book, with a multi-layered analysis. It infuses a corpus of data of historical significance with fresh insights from the thriving narrative analytic inquiry into identities at the same time as advancing the conceptualization of the elusive notion of 'master narratives.”
Alexandra Georgakopoulou, King’s College, London
“This excellent book lends empirical substance to the abstract notion of master narratives, provides a clearer understanding of aspects of identity construction that are barely, if at all, controlled by subjects, and demonstrates how analyses of language use can contribute to the study of history – three highly commendable achievements.”
Jef Verschueren, University of Antwerp
Cited by (23)
Cited by 23 other publications
Choe, Hanwool
Copes, Heith, Sveinung Sandberg & Jared Ragland
Takovski, Aleksandar
Sandberg, Sveinung & Gustavo Fondevila
Van De Mieroop, Dorien, Jonathan Clifton & Stephanie Schnurr
Hyvärinen, Matti, Mari Hatavara & Hanna Rautajoki
Van De Mieroop, Dorien
2021. The Narrative Dimensions Model and an exploration of various narrative genres. Narrative Inquiry 31:1 ► pp. 4 ff.
Poppi, Fabio I. M. & Sveinung Sandberg
Poppi, Fabio Indìo Massimo
Schoofs, Kim & Dorien Van De Mieroop
Schoofs, Kim & Dorien Van De Mieroop
Schoofs, Kim & Dorien Van De Mieroop
Clifton, Jonathan
Clifton, Jonathan
Dollinger, Bernd
Mueni, Joy & Jonathan Clifton
Van De Mieroop, Dorien, Marlene Miglbauer & Abha Chatterjee
Van De Mieroop, Dorien & Stephanie Schnurr
2017. Chapter 24. Epilogue. In Identity Struggles [Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture, 69], ► pp. 445 ff.
Van De Mieroop, Dorien & Jonathan Clifton
[no author supplied]
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Subjects
Communication Studies
Main BIC Subject
CFB: Sociolinguistics
Main BISAC Subject
LAN009000: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General