4.2 Research paradigm
4.2.2 Positioning theory
68 subjective lives. To provide an answer to this question, Shotter (1997:11) explains that the inner things are not so much inside us but are to be found in the “momentary relational spaces occurring between ourselves and an other or otherness in our surroundings”. In other words, our sense of self is seen as something we accomplish with social interactions “reconstructed from moment to moment within specific discursive and rhetorical contexts, and distributed across social contexts” (Edley & Wetherell, 1997:205). This has led to a conceptualisation of the self as de-centralised, fluid or multiple, with the person or self changing within the context (Gergen, 1991, 1994b; Hall, 1992).
In a study that is concerned with the tension that exists in the construction of self, it is important to know how the language positions people as they talk about their experiences of being black. I now move to positioning theory in order to understand the storyteller‟s construction of identity in narrative.
69 Rather than saying that individuals have one fixed self or role, we would say, using Davies and Harré‟s approach that individuals construct, or take upon themselves, several positions. As Davies and Harré (1999:35) state, “[a]n individual emerges through the process of social interaction, not as a relatively fixed end product but as one who is constituted and reconstituted through the various discursive practices in which they participate”.
An analysis of personhood, or self, based on the concept of positioning implies the consideration of speech actions. However, to Davies and Harré (1999:34) a speech act does not necessarily imply a corresponding speech action. Rather, as the authors show, “a speech-act will determine a speech action only to the extent that it is taken up as such by all participants. So what it is that has been said evolves and changes as the conversation develops”. In addition, positioning involves the consideration of the storylines constructed as the interactants interpret what is being done.
Thus, an individual‟s interpretation of a speech act is a function of the storyline that is being constructed in an interaction. For example, when individuals tell stories of discrimination, we can expect that certain positions, typically associated with known discriminatory episodes, such as the position of victim and perpetrator, will be created. The use of specific linguistic features allows the speakers to construct these positions and the sense that one experienced discrimination.
Davies and Harré (1999) show that there are several observable dimensions when individuals position themselves and others. For instance, the words that a speaker chooses have a bearing on the positions that are created. Although this choice of words and the resulting images that are invoked through them may not always be intentional, they help to define the situation at hand as being of a specific type. As Davies and Harré (1999:38) go on to show, the perception of an encounter as being of a certain kind may vary for the different participants. This, in turn, relates to the different “commitments” that the speakers have, the different ideas that they have of who they are, or the “availability of alternative discourses” for the kinds of interactions that they are developing. To Davies and Harré (1999:39) then, positions do not result in “a linear, non- contradictory autobiography”, but rather in “cumulative fragments”. The positions constructed in
70 an interaction can derive from known roles and storylines, or they can be anchored in the kinds of acts that are being developed in the interaction.
The concept of positioning is useful for analysing stories and talk about identity and discrimination. For instance, it allows us to see how speakers relate what they already know of racism to the situations that they experienced, as they construct or refer to specific storylines in constructing self. This relationship unfolds as the tellers describe actions and speech lines in the interaction between the characters in the story, and as these actions and lines performed by the characters of the stories reflect specific storylines for episodes of racism.
As Davies and Harré (1999:41) write, positioning helps us as speakers in “locating ourselves in conversations according to those narrative forms with which we are familiar and bringing to those narratives our own subjective lived histories through which we have learnt metaphors, characters and plots”. Thus, in stories of discrimination, the positions of perpetrator and victim emerge in the stories as an outcome of the images of self that the speakers seek to convey. For instance, speakers can interpret certain events as episodes of discrimination because, based on their experiences and shared cultural background, they know what individuals who have an appearance similar to theirs, or a comparable racial profile, are likely to experience. In the words of Davies and Harré (1999:46), individuals are thus “committed to a pre-existing idea of themselves that they had prior to the interchange” at stake. Thus, the analysis of these and other linguistic choices can be a revealing way to learn more about the predominant views of blackness and racism in South Africa. The kinds of roles that are created in these stories, and how prejudice is conveyed through language, can teach us more about the impact of discrimination in the lives of the ones who have experienced racism. Furthermore, such an analysis may lead us to a better understanding of how the tellers, or the ones who experienced discrimination figuring in such narratives, perceive themselves.
Davies and Harré (1990) further propose that we adopt positions and assign them to others in talk. Once positioned, there are sets of related concepts which may be drawn on in talk, but this positioning is not necessarily regarded as deliberate (Davies & Harré, 1990; Potter & Wetherell, 1987). The offering, resistance and acceptance of positions in talk provides an arena in which to
71 explore how identity is related to discourses, or repertoires, which in turn make visible some of the ideologies prevalent in this context. This is illustrated in the analysis chapters of the present study.
I now turn to narrative as one of the strands within social constructionism to show how it fits in with the positioning theory discussed above. The following is a discussion of the use of the autobiographical method as proposed by McAdams (1996). In social constructionism, the understanding of identity focuses on how identity is related to culturally available narrative forms (Sarbin, 1986; Gergen & Gergen, 1986). Bruner (1986) proposes that narrative as a factually indifferent process provides an arena in which the self can be studied. However, this requires, firstly, a focus on the meanings of the terms by which the self and the culture are being defined. Secondly, some attention should also be paid to how the self is negotiated, that is, the practices through which the „meanings of the self‟ are put to use (Bruner, 1990:116). When talking of retrospective experience, we organise our accounts in terms of a narrative structure, that is, with a beginning, middle and end, to some identifiable goal or end point. However, our constructions of narratives are subject to social sanctioning and negotiation. Through situated communicative practices respondents make available particular positions for each other for claims being made about identities are established in subsequent talk (Davies & Harré, 1990).
Although McAdams is not a social constructionist, his method is useful for social constructionist research. Similar to social constructionist research, McAdams method has its emphasis on the narrative construction of self, revision and dialogue. Autobiographies in this study are used as a tool for understanding the expressions of black experiences in their encounter with the white
„Other‟; at the same time expressing and reproducing power relations by the subject positions they take in constructing black identity.