Crossing boundaries

The nexus of time, space, person, and place in narrative

Bibliographic Data

ID2865129
AuthorsDeborah Schiffrin (University of Washington, corresponding author)
Year2009
Volume38
Issue4
Pages421-445
Publication date2009-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLanguage in Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0047-4045 • E-ISSN: 1469-8013
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0047404509990212
OpenAlexW2135582197
LanguageEN
Citations received19
References cited30

Recent research on narrative has widened the scope of analysis, suggesting the value of reexamining the canonical Labovian view of the structure and function of personal-experience narrative. This article suggests that narrative is not simply a way of evoking and shaping experience in time. Rather, narrative can evoke and shape cultural "chronotopes" (Bakhtin 1981) or nexuses of time, space, and identity. To illustrate this, I analyze a narrative from an oral history related in 1972 by a young woman whose volunteer work in the mid-1960s led to the rehabilitation of a small African American enclave in a middle-class White suburb. Analysis of clause types, constructed dialogue, existentialthere, deixis, verb chains, and referring expressions shows that the narrative is a blend of genres evoking place as well as personal identity linked to complex coordinates of time and space, and dependent intertextually on other parts of a larger story. (Narrative, oral history, chronotope, space, place, identity, genre

Chronotope · Narrative identity · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Multilingual Education and Policy

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