Telling Stories: Males and Females Doing Gender in Personal Narratives about Trouble

Marina Lambrou

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Telling Stories: Males and Females Doing Gender in Personal Narratives about Trouble

In: Stylistics and Social Cognition

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Marina Lambrou

Marina Lambrou
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 125–139

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789401200646_009

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This article focuses on whether there are significant gender differences in narrative storytelling and importantly, where those differences can be found. Specifically, which stylistic features do male and female narrators use to construct identity and in some instances, ‘save face’ in personal experiences. Are male narrators only willing to disclose experiences of themselves in situations where they are cast ‘in the most favourable possible light’ or what Labov and Waletzky (1967) describe as ‘self– aggrandizement’ when compared to women, who are less concerned with that aspect of their identity being undermined (Coates, 1995, Johnstone, 1993) ? Furthermore, why is humour often a feature of “Trouble” (Bruner 1987) themed experiences where the crisis or complication describes difficult, traumatic and often violent situations which would be more likely to provoke the opposite reaction. And who uses this device more and for what reason? This paper explores such questions by examining a corpus of spoken personal narratives from males and females from the Greek Cypriot Community in London and uses Labov and Waletzky’s (1967) narrative model as the central framework for analysis. The findings show how meaning through identity is constructed and how social cognition develops between narrators and their recipients through the act of storytelling.

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Stylistics and Social Cognition

Series: PALA Papers, Volume: 4

E-Book ISBN:: 9789401200646

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 01 Jan 2007

Subjects
- Languages and Linguistics
  - Pragmatics & Discourse Analysis
- Literature and Cultural Studies
  - Criticism & Theory

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Telling Stories: Males and Females Doing Gender in Personal Narratives about Trouble

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Stylistics and Social Cognition

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