Narrative research is frequently described as a rich and diverse enterprise, yet the kinds of narrative data that it bases itself on present a striking consensus: they are autobiographical in kind (i.e., about non-shared, personal experience, single past events). In this paper, I put forth a case for under-represented narrative data which I collectively call (following Bamberg 2004a, b; also Georgakopoulou & Bamberg, 2005) “small stories” (partly literally, partly metaphorically). My aim is to flesh small stories out, to urge for the sort of systematic research that will establish connections between their interactional features and their sites of engagement and finally to consider the implications of their inclusion in narrative research for identity analysis (as the main agenda of much of narrative research). I will thus propose small stories research as a “new” narrative turn that can provide a needed meeting point for narrative analysis and narrative inquiry.
The recent proliferation of linguistic studies of computer-mediated communication is marked by an emphasis on communication between virtual acquaintances as well as by a limited cross-fertilization with current advances in sociolinguistically oriented discourse analysis. The point of departure for this paper is the need for a more inclusive strategy in relevant research, in particular in the form of contextualized approaches to computer-mediated discourse which wiU shed light on the diversity and multiplicity of the text-context relationships in the ever-growing electronic medium. In addition, the study wishes to redress the balance in relation to the data sources in the volume of research by focusing on e(1ectronic)-mail which is (1) exchanged between people who are well-acquainted and (2) written in Greek. The paper sets out to explore self-presentation and alliances in e-mail discourse, and its framework is informed by interactional sociolinguistics and ethnography of communication. The results of the data analysis bring to the fore certain discourse features which are proposed as forming the conventionalized style of e-mail and providing the frame for the major contextualization cues in the data. These are realized by certain patterns of recurrent code-centered choices (code-switches and style-shifts) which prove to (re-)frame footings of symmetrical alignments and intimacy between e-mail participants.
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