Abstract
Using conversational data from an ethnographic study of a quilting guild, this article examines how narratives are used to negotiate the tension between maintaining solidarity and upholding group standards. The quilting guild, as a community of practice, provides an excellent context to investigate how narratives are used to construct and reinforce community practices. In this community, the socially situated activity, the quilted blocks on display, and their relationship to the narratives in the discourse are integral components of the interactional frame. The analysis specifically focuses on the role exemplar narratives play in negotiating the tensions between not criticizing other quilters and the group’s need to maintain quilting values and appropriate sewing skills. Through self-disclosure, exemplar narratives construct a less than perfect quilter. This self-portrayal acts to mitigate any implied criticism of intended recipient(s). Drawing on the sociocultural resources of common experiences and self-disclosure, exemplar narratives perform different interactional functions such as modeling accepted quilting practices, constructing both individual and group identities, and preserving an egalitarian floor. Thus, they are a strategic means to negotiate tensions between criticism and support necessary for participant learning in this community of practice.
About the author
Sonja Launspach received her PhD in linguistic from the University of South Carolina and is currently Associate Professor of Linguistics in the Department of English and Philosophy at Idaho State University. Her research interests include conversation and discourse analysis, narrative, language and gender, regional dialect studies, and the application of linguistics to the teaching of writing. Her work has appeared in Narrative Inquiry and Journal of Basic Writing.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by an Idaho State University Humanities and Social Sciences Research Committee grant (grant no. HF 11-4F). This study received IRB approval.
Appendix: transcription conventions
Characteristics of speech delivery
- wo:rd
A colon indicates a lengthened sound, usually a vowel.
- .
A period indicates a stopping fall in tone.
- ,
A comma indicates a continuing intonation.
- ?
A question mark indicates a rising intonation.
- wor-
A single dash indicates an abrupt cut off.
- wo-wo-word
Multiple dashes connect the syllables or strings of words to give a stammering quality.
- word°
A degree sign indicates that the talk is softer.
Continual utterances
- =
When two utterances are adjacent without overlap they are linked with equal signs.
- [
A bracket indicates overlapping utterances.
Intervals between utterances
- (.)
Indicates a tiny gap within or between utterances.
- (0.1)
Silences are timed and marked in tenths of a second in parentheses.
Transcription doubt
- ( )
Empty parentheses indicate that part of the utterance could not be deciphered.
- (xx)
Uncertain words are enclosed in parentheses.
- (( ))
indicate transcripter’s descriptions
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