Wilkinson2006

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Wilkinson2006
BibType ARTICLE
Key Wilkinson2006
Author(s) Sue Wilkinson, Celia Kitzinger
Title Surprise as an interactional achievement: reaction tokens in conversation
Editor(s)
Tag(s) EMCA, surprise, response cries, reaction tokens, tokens
Publisher
Year 2006
Language
City
Month
Journal Social Psychology Quarterly
Volume 69
Number 2
Pages 150–182
URL Link
DOI 10.1177/019027250606900203
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title
Chapter

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Abstract

The expression of surprise—at something unexpected—is a key form of emotional display. Focusing on displays of surprise performed by means of reaction tokens (akin to Goffman's “response cries”), such as wow, gosh, oh my god, ooh!, phew, we use an ethnomethodological, conversation-analytic approach to analyze surprise in talk-in-interaction. Our key contribution is to detach the psychology of surprise from its social expression by showing how co-conversationalists collaborate to bring off an interactionally achieved performance of surprise. Far from being a visceral eruption of emotion, the production of a surprise token is often prepared for several turns in advance. We also show how surprise can be recycled on an occasion subsequent to its initial production, and how surprise displays may be delayed by silence, ritualized disbelief, and other repair initiations. Finally, we consider some of the uses of surprise as an interactional resource, including its role in the reflection and reproduction of culture.

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