Analyzing Narrative by De Fina Anna; Georgakopoulou Alexandra; & Alexandra Georgakopoulou

Author:De Fina, Anna; Georgakopoulou, Alexandra; & Alexandra Georgakopoulou
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2012-08-14T16:00:00+00:00

In this case, Mikes’s negative evaluation occurs five times in the course of the telling of a story of projected events, which involves planning a meeting between the participants and two men. The reference to the shared (group) story “talk to him man, talk to him” is gradually worked up by two of the participants (Vivi and Tonia) as the main reason why Fotini should not, as a result of the planned meeting, get involved with Mikes. In other words, it is proposed as a source of character incompatibility between the two of them. In this way, a reference to shared events is drawn upon as a running commentary on and a comparison base for events that have not taken place yet.

Sequentially speaking, an initial acknowledgment and even reinforcement of the turn that encodes a reference to a shared story was found to be necessary regardless of the type of action that the reference performs locally and of the addressee’s reaction to that. As can be seen in example (4.5) above, Fotini quickly acknowledges the reference “talk to him man, talk to him” by means of laughter (line 61), despite the fact that she subsequently frames it as “non-serious” talk and is quick to reintroduce the previous topical agenda (line 63).

Another prototypical feature of stories that has been questioned is their linear development from the beginning to the middle to the end and the fact that they present a closure. On closer look in conversational settings, it has transpired that stories often tend to be heavily embedded into their conversational surroundings and enmeshed in local business. As a result, the openings are not always clear or explicitly stated, and once a story is launched it is not automatic or necessary that it will be closed. Stories can be digressed from, abandoned, returned to and unfinished, sometimes quite deliberately and strategically too, for instance, when the teller wants to leave their addressees wanting for more.4 An important point to raise before classifying a story as “unfinished” is to discuss from whose perspective the process is seen. There may be cases when abandoning a story may be integrally connected with local business and intimately linked with the exigencies of the context at hand. For instance, in a study of private email messages, Georgakopoulou (2004) found that it was commonly the case that senders were initiating a story but deferring its full telling for an offline interaction, which was seen as a more appropriate context for a full telling: (4.6)

> How are you?

Long story that, which I am hoping to tell you face-to-face when we hopefully meet up. In any case, there are still some missing chapters, it would be good if I had something other than the Prologue.

(34-year-old female to 40-year-old female)

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