Agency displays in stories of drunk driving: Subjectivity, authorship, and reflectivity

Abstract

This study examined 30 stories of drunk driving (DD) recounted by repeat offenders in the early phase of a court-mandated counseling program. The focus of analysis was on displays of agency in the narrators’ portrayal of themselves as protagonists in the stories. The expressions of subjectivity, authorship, and reflectivity were considered as constructors of agency positions. In the analysis of the videotaped and transcribed stories, five story types of agency were found. They displayed the narrator-protagonists’ agency positions as either unconcerned, weak, egotistical, akratic, or disowned. The quality of telling is viewed as expressing the narrators’ problematic agency positions, readiness for personal change, and motivations to process the problem in counseling. The variety of disclaims of agency in DD are discussed as clients’ contributions at the outset of coerced counseling.

Keywords:

• drunk driving
• narrative
• agency
• subjectivity
• reflectivity

Notes

Note

1. In the translated excerpts from the data corpus, the following transcript notations are used: Texts in square brackets […] includes information added by the authors. Three periods in round brackets (…) indicates omitted text. A single dash - following a word or a letter indicates an abrupt cut-off in the speech.