You are here: Home :: Area CULI :: Linguistics and literature :: Communication science

Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz

Making marriage visible: Wedding anniversaries as the public component of private relationships

Personal narratives have most often been studied as they occur in conversations. Here narratives told at a family ritual, specifically a wedding anniversary, are the focus of attention. The main argument is that it is through the telling of narratives of personal experience that a private relationship, such as a marriage, is made visible. This research also contributes to our understanding of retellings (stories already known to the participants). Specific attention is paid to how anticipatory laughter functions in retelling narratives, and the way in which it marks group membership, for only members know to laugh before the joke is told. Finally, this research contributes to our understanding of how children can be socialized into the family, and to family values, through the telling of narratives at a ritual.

Text - Interdisciplinary Journal for the Study of Discourse, Walter de Gruyter

Print ISSN: 0165-4888
Volume: 25, 09/2005
Pages: 595 - 631

Show full article (external site)

Show all available items of this journal

 

Area CULI