1887
Volume 29, Issue 1
  • ISSN 1387-6740
  • E-ISSN: 1569-9935
USD
Buy:$35.00 + Taxes

Abstract

Abstract

This paper explores discursive narratives as inextricably linked to the construction of identity, place and history by a number of interviewed individuals. From an interactional sociolinguistics (cf. De Fina & Georgakopoulou, 2012) perspective, the study explores the context of the East African diaspora (Georgiou, 2006Manger & Assal, 2006 among many others) as the interviewed participants are all Zanzibar-born individuals for whom the relationship with the island and its history is crucial to their construction of selfhood. The study analyses the narrative voices (De Fina & Georgakopolou, 2008) of those individuals who decided to leave Zanzibar at the time of the 1964 violent political upheaval never to return and those who, on the contrary, decided to go back after a lengthy period abroad. However, more than establishing a division between these two groups, the paper highlights how these individuals take a different positioning (Bamberg, 1997) towards Zanzibar and its history and construct a range of identities in the context of the interview.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/ni.18038.pia
2019-07-02
2025-02-08
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Adamson, F.
    (2008, March). Constructing the diaspora: Diaspora identity politics and transnational social movements. Paper presented at the49th annual meeting of the International Studied Association, San Francisco, CA. (pdf available on line).
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Babu, A. M.
    (1991) The 1964 Revolution: lumpen or vanguard?InA. Sheriff & E. Ferguson (Eds.), Zanzibar under colonial rule (pp.220–261). London: James Currey Ltd.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Bakhtin, M.
    (1981) The dialogic imagination. Austin: University of Texas Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Bamberg, M.
    (1997) Positioning between structure and performance. Journal of Narrative and Life History, 7(1–4), 335–342. 10.1075/jnlh.7.42pos
    https://doi.org/10.1075/jnlh.7.42pos [Google Scholar]
  5. Bamberg, M., & Georgakopoulou, A.
    (2008) Small stories as a new perspective in narrative and identity analysis. Text & Talk, 28(3), 377–396. 10.1515/TEXT.2008.018
    https://doi.org/10.1515/TEXT.2008.018 [Google Scholar]
  6. Baynham, M.
    (2009) ‘Just one day like today’: scale and the analysis of space/time orientation in narratives of displacement. InJ. Collins, M. Baynham & S. Slembrouck (Eds.), Globalization and language in contact: scale, migration and communicative practices (pp.130–147). London/New York: Continuum.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Benwell, B., & Stokoe, E.
    (2006) Discourse and identity. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Bhabha, H. K.
    (1994) The location of culture. London/New York: Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Bruner, J.
    (1987) Life as narrative. Social Research, 54(2), 11–32.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Bucholtz, M., & Hall, K.
    (2009) Locating identity in language. InC. Llamas & D. Watt (Eds.), Language and identities (pp.18–36). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Capps, L., & Ochs, E.
    (1995) Out of place: Narrative insights into agoraphobia. Discourse Processes, 19(3), 407–439. 10.1080/01638539509544925
    https://doi.org/10.1080/01638539509544925 [Google Scholar]
  12. Davies, M.
    (2012) Oppositions in news discourse. London: Bloomsbury.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. De Fina, A.
    (2003) Identity in narrative: A study of immigrant discourse. Amsterdam, John Benjamins. 10.1075/sin.3
    https://doi.org/10.1075/sin.3 [Google Scholar]
  14. De Fina, A., Schiffrin, D., & Bamberg, M.
    (Eds.) (2006) Discourse and Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511584459
    https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511584459 [Google Scholar]
  15. De Fina, A., & Georgakopoulou, A.
    (2008) Analysing narratives as practice. Qualitative Research, 8(3), 379–387. 10.1177/1468794106093634
    https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794106093634 [Google Scholar]
  16. (2012) Analyzing narratives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. De Fina, A., & Perrino, S.
    (2011) Introduction: Interviews vs. ‘natural’ contexts: A false dilemma. Language in Society, 40, 1–11. 10.1017/S0047404510000849
    https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404510000849 [Google Scholar]
  18. Derrida, J.
    (1983) Of grammatology. (G. C. Spivak, Trans.). Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Dornyei, Z.
    (2007) Research methods in applied linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Duranti, A.
    (2004) Agency in Language. InA. Duranti (Ed.), A companion to linguistic anthropology (pp.451–473). Malden, MA: Blackwell.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Eksner, H. J., & Orellana, M.
    (2005) Liminality as Linguistic Process. Immigrant Youths and Experiences of Language in Germany and the United States. InJ. Knoerre (Ed.), Childhood and migration (pp.175–206). Bielefeld: Transcript. 10.14361/9783839403846‑008
    https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839403846-008 [Google Scholar]
  22. Elliot, J.
    (2005) Using Narrative in Social Research. Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. London: Sage Publications.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Fetzer, A.
    (Ed.) (2007) Context and appropriateness: micro meets macro. Amsterdam: Benjamins. 10.1075/pbns.162
    https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.162 [Google Scholar]
  24. Fludernik, M.
    (2003) Chronology, time, tense and experientiality in narrative. Language & Literature, 12(2), 117–134. 10.1177/0963947003012002295
    https://doi.org/10.1177/0963947003012002295 [Google Scholar]
  25. Georgiou, M.
    (2006) Diaspora, identity and the media: diasporic transnationalism and mediated spatialities. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Gee, J. P.
    (1999) An introduction to discourse analysis: Theory and method. London & New York: Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Glover, K.
    (2000) Proximal and distal deixis in negotiation talk. Journal of Pragmatics, 32(7), 915–926. 10.1016/S0378‑2166(99)00078‑8
    https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-2166(99)00078-8 [Google Scholar]
  28. Goffman, E.
    (1990) The presentation of self in everyday life. London: Penguin. (Original work published 1959)
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Gramsci, A.
    (1971) Prison notebooks. New York: International Publishers.
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Hall, S.
    (1990) Cultural identity and diaspora. InJ. Rutherford (Ed.), Identity: community, culture, difference (pp.222–237). London: Lawrence & Wishart.
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Hammack, P.
    (2011) Narrative and the politics of meaning. Narrative Inquiry21(2), 311–318. 10.1075/ni.21.2.09ham
    https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.21.2.09ham [Google Scholar]
  32. Harling Stalker, L.
    (2009) A tale of two narratives: Ontological and epistemological narratives. Narrative Inquiry, 19(2), 219–232. 10.1075/ni.19.2.02har
    https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.19.2.02har [Google Scholar]
  33. Kiesling, S. F.
    (2006) Hegemonic identity-making in narrative. InA. De Fina, D. Schiffrin & M. Bamberg (Eds.), Discourse and identity (pp.261–287). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511584459.014
    https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511584459.014 [Google Scholar]
  34. Korpela, K.
    (1989) Place-identity as a product of environmental self-regulation. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 9, 241–256. 10.1016/S0272‑4944(89)80038‑6
    https://doi.org/10.1016/S0272-4944(89)80038-6 [Google Scholar]
  35. Kramer, A.
    (2014) The Observers and the Observed: The ‘dual Vision’ of the Mass Observation Project. Sociological Research Online, 19(3), 1–11. 10.5153/sro.3455
    https://doi.org/10.5153/sro.3455 [Google Scholar]
  36. Lambrou, M.
    (2014) Narratives of trauma re-lived: the ethnographer’s paradox and other tales. InB. Thomas & J. Round (Eds.), Real lives and celebrity stories: narratives of ordinary and extraordinary people across media (pp.113–128). London: Bloomsbury.
    [Google Scholar]
  37. Liebscher, G., & Dailey-O’Cain, J.
    (2013) Language, space and identity in migration. Houndsmill, Basingstoke: Palgrave. 10.1057/9781137316431
    https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137316431 [Google Scholar]
  38. Linde, C.
    (1993) Life stories. The creation of coherence. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  39. Lindström, J.
    (2009) Interactional linguistics. InS. D’hondt, J. Östman & J. Verschueren (Eds.), The Pragmatics of interaction (pp.96–103). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 10.1075/hoph.4.06lin
    https://doi.org/10.1075/hoph.4.06lin [Google Scholar]
  40. Llamas, C., & Watt, D.
    (2009) Introduction. InC. Llamas & D. Watt (Eds.), Language and identities (pp.1–5). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  41. Lodhi, A.
    (2014, April28). Zanzibar Revolution revisited – a short review essay [Blog Post]. Retrieved fromzanzibar-stories.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/ (https://www.pambazuka.org/arts/zanzibar-revolution-revisited-short-review-essay, 12/12/2018)
  42. Lofchie, M.
    (1965) Zanzibar: Background to Revolution. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  43. Manger, L., & Assal, M. A. M.
    (Eds.) (2006) Diasporas within and without Africa: Dynamism, heterogeneity, variation. Uppsala: Nordic Africa Institute.
    [Google Scholar]
  44. Manning, P.
    (2003) Africa and the African diaspora: New directions of study. Journal of African History, 44, 487–506. 10.1017/S0021853703008569
    https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021853703008569 [Google Scholar]
  45. Mavroudi, E.
    (2007) Diaspora as Process: (De)Constructing Boundaries. Geography Compass, 1(3), 467–479. 10.1111/j.1749‑8198.2007.00033.x
    https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-8198.2007.00033.x [Google Scholar]
  46. Moita-Lopes, L. P.
    (2006) On being white, heterosexual and male in a Brazilian school: Multiple positionings in oral narratives. InA. De Fina, D. Schiffrin & M. Bamberg (Eds.), Discourse and identity (pp.288–313). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511584459.015
    https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511584459.015 [Google Scholar]
  47. Ochs, E., & Capps, L.
    (1996) Narrating the self. Annual Review of Anthropology, 25, 19–43. 10.1146/annurev.anthro.25.1.19
    https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.anthro.25.1.19 [Google Scholar]
  48. Piazza, R., & Rubino, A.
    (2014) ‘Racial laws turned our lives positively’: Agentivity and chorality in the identity of a group of Italian Jewish witnesses. InR. Piazza & A. Fasulo (Eds.), Marked identities (pp.98–122). Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave.
    [Google Scholar]
  49. Proshansky, H., Fabian, A., & Kaminoff, R.
    (2014) Place-identity: Physical world socialization of the self. InJ. J. Gieseking, W. Mangold, C. Katz, S. Low, S. Saegart (Eds.), The people, place, and space reader (pp.77–81). New York and London: Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  50. Rapley, T. J.
    (2001) The art(fulness) of open-ended interviewing: some considerations on analysing interviews. Qualitative Research, 1(3), 303–323. 10.1177/146879410100100303
    https://doi.org/10.1177/146879410100100303 [Google Scholar]
  51. Rapport, N., & Dawson, A.
    (1998) The topic and the book. InN. Rapport & A. Dawson (Eds.), Migrants of identity: perceptions of home in the world of movement (pp.3–17). Oxford and New York: Berg.
    [Google Scholar]
  52. Riggins, S. H.
    (1997) The rhetoric of othering. InS. H. Riggins (Ed.), The language and politics of exclusion: others in discourse (pp.1–3). Thousands Oaks, CA: Sage.
    [Google Scholar]
  53. Sala, A., & De la Mata Benítez, M.
    (2017) The narrative construction of Lesbian identity: A study using Bruner’s self-indicators. Culture & Psychology, 23(1), 108–127. 10.1177/1354067X16650831
    https://doi.org/10.1177/1354067X16650831 [Google Scholar]
  54. Schubert, S. J., Hansen, S., Dyer, K. R., & Rapley, M.
    (2009) ‘ADHD patient’ or ‘illicit drug user’? Managing medico-moral membership categories in drug dependence services. Discourse & Society, 20(4), 499–516. 10.1177/0957926509104025
    https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926509104025 [Google Scholar]
  55. Shoshana, A.
    (2014) Space, Heterogeneity, and Everyday Life: Ultra-Orthodox Heterotopia in Israel. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 43(5), 527–555. 10.1177/0891241613514444
    https://doi.org/10.1177/0891241613514444 [Google Scholar]
  56. Sökefeld, M.
    (2006) Mobilizing in transnational space: a social movement approach to the formation of diaspora. Global Networks, 6(3), 265–284. 10.1111/j.1471‑0374.2006.00144.x
    https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-0374.2006.00144.x [Google Scholar]
  57. Thomassen, B.
    (2009) The Uses and Meanings of Liminality. International Political Anthropology, 2(1), 1–27.
    [Google Scholar]
  58. Tsagarousianou, R.
    (2004) Rethinking the concept of diaspora: mobility, connectivity and communication in a globalised world. Westminster papers in communication and culture, 1(1), 52–65. 10.16997/wpcc.203
    https://doi.org/10.16997/wpcc.203 [Google Scholar]
  59. Turner, V.
    (1967) Betwixt-and-Between: The Liminal Period in Rites de Passage. InThe forest of symbols: aspects of Ndembu ritual. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  60. (1969) The ritual process. Structure and anti-structure. Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company.
    [Google Scholar]
  61. (1974) Dramas, fields, and metaphors. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  62. Van De Mieroop, D.
    (2011) Identity negotiations in narrative accounts about poverty. Discourse & Society, 22(5), 565–591. 10.1177/0957926511405423
    https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926511405423 [Google Scholar]
  63. Van De Mieroop, D., Miglbauer, M., & Chatterjee, A.
    (2017) Mobilizing master narratives through categorical narratives and categorical statements when default identities are at stake. Discourse & Communication, 11(2), 179–198. 10.1177/1750481317691867
    https://doi.org/10.1177/1750481317691867 [Google Scholar]
  64. van Gennep, A.
    (1960) The rites of passage. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Original work published 1909)
    [Google Scholar]
  65. van Leeuwen, T.
    (2008) Discourse and practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195323306.001.0001
    https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195323306.001.0001 [Google Scholar]
  66. Vertovec, S.
    (1997) Three Meanings of “Diaspora”, Exemplified among South Asian Religions. Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies, 6(3), 277–299. 10.1353/dsp.1997.0010
    https://doi.org/10.1353/dsp.1997.0010 [Google Scholar]
  67. Wilson, A.
    (2013) The threat of liberation. London: Pluto Press.
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1075/ni.18038.pia
Loading
  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): diaspora; hegemonic; identity; liminality; narrative
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error