Interpersonal activities in conversational storytelling

This paper presents a case study of a conversational storytelling in which a recipient redirects an ongoing storytelling. The storytelling begins as one which threatens to make another recipient its “butt.” In redirecting the storytelling, the “butt” is rescued. The account of how these activities are achieved indicates, first, that storytelling may be a way of accomplishing interpersonal activities, both for teller and recipients. Secondly, it demonstrates that recipient is an active participant in the storytelling, both in determining what the storytelling comes to be “about,” and in working out the interpersonal activities it performs. Conclusions are drawn about the work of storytelling in the interactive construction of experience.

Notes

An early version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the Speech Communication Association, Boston, MA, November 1987. The author acknowledges the contributions to the analysis presented here of participants in data sessions at U.C.L.A., 1986–87, including Emanuel A. Schegloff, Gene Lerner, Paul Drew, and Pamela Kossoy; and of an anonymous reviewer and the editor of this special issue.