Colloquium: Jamie Hudzik, "Creating a ‘we’ identity through couples’ co-constructed narratives in conversation"

I build upon several interdisciplinary definitions of ‘we’ terminology (‘we-ness,’ ‘we’ groups, ‘we’ narratives, ‘we’ stories, etc.) to answer the question, “How do couples interactionally create a collective ‘we’ identity through narrative discourse?”  De Fina & Georgakopoulou (2012) trace the academic shift of identity research from an understanding of “who people are” to “what or who they do” in specific contexts (167).  Following their interactional, “small stories” approach to narrative analysis, I uncover discourse strategies for the interactional construction of a heterosexual ‘we’ identity in a conversational context.  The data consists of a 42-minute, audio-recorded New Year’s Eve dinner conversation with eight interlocutors, most of whom are heterosexual married couples who had been married for at least 25 years at the time of recording.  Focusing on a two-minute, co-constructed narrative extracted from the data, I demonstrate the intertextual strategies of one couple’s interaction and show how they index their ‘we’ identity.