Moral Stance and Agency in Schooling Narratives

Moral Stance and Agency in Schooling Narratives

Mariana Souto-Manning

The University of South Carolina - Columbia, SC

RESUMO

Neste trabalho emprego análise de narrativas conversacionais para mostrar como recursos lingüísticos são usados com a finalidade de expressar agência e posição moral nas narrativas de duas mulheres. Analiso a progressão de narrativas de abandono à escola a narrativas de primeiros dias de volta à escola, no processo de negociação de narrativas de retorno à escola. Resultados desse estudo indicam mudanças nas narrativas dessas mulheres. Inicialmente, elas retratavam-se como vítimas, devido a situações criadas por outras pessoas (narrativas de abandono à escola). Posteriormente, passaram a se colocar como agentes de mudança. Episódios analisados foram selecionados de entrevistas de história de vida conduzidas em julho de 2003.

ABSTRACT

In this paper I employ conversational narrative analysis to show how linguistic resources are used to convey agency and moral stance in two women's narratives. I analyze how they progress from dropping-out narratives to first-days narratives while negotiating returning-to-school narratives. Results indicate that these women's narratives changed from portraying themselves as helpless victims in which they did not orient to goodness due to someone else's action (dropping-out narratives) to perceiving themselves as active, ergative agents. The episodes analyzed were selected from life history interviews conducted in July, 2003.

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Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  23 Apr 2013
• Date of issue
  2006