Widdicombe2017

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Widdicombe2017
BibType ARTICLE
Key Widdicombe2017
Author(s) Sue Widdicombe
Title The delicate business of identity
Editor(s)
Tag(s) EMCA, CA, MCA, Identity, Membership categories, Category-bound activities, Interviews, Question-answer sequences, Resistance
Publisher
Year 2017
Language English
City
Month
Journal Discourse Studies
Volume 19
Number 4
Pages 460-478
URL Link
DOI 10.1177/1461445617707011
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title
Chapter

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Abstract

Identity has often been approached by asking questions about it in interviews. However, speakers sometimes reject, resist or modify category membership because of the sensitive inferential and interactional issues invoked. This article aims to provide a systematic analysis of category-eliciting question–answer (Q-A) sequences from a large corpus of Syrian interview data concerning several identities. Using conversation and membership categorisation analysis, four Q-A sequences are identified: minimal confirmation of questions seeking the hearably demographic fact of membership; modifying membership claims in response to factual-type questions by rejecting some not other category-bound attributes; characterising membership as fact and nominating an alternative identity in response to questions about feelings; and, in response to questions seeking confirmation of a category implicated through the prior talk, warranting the denial of membership. The analysis therefore highlights a paradox: asking direct questions about category membership is used to generate talk about the topic of identity that would be difficult to collect otherwise, but this may in turn provide for a reluctance to self-identify, thus making identity a delicate business.

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