Review. Discourse and identity. Bethan Benwell and Elisabeth Stokoe (2006) Reviewed by Cristina Ros i Solé. Sociolinguistic Studies

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1 Sociolinguistic Studies ISSN: (print) ISSN: (online) Review Discourse and identity. Bethan Benwell and Elisabeth Stokoe (2006) Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. pp ISBN Reviewed by Cristina Ros i Solé This book is an excellent addition to the existing growing literature on the study of identity through discourse (e.g. Androutsopoulos and Georgakopoulou 2003, De Fina et al. 2006, Rampton 2005). It is a well researched and comprehensive overview of how to approach identity within different methodological discourse traditions, from micro approaches, such as Conversational Analysis; to macro approaches, such as Critical Discourse Analysis. Not only is the reader given an instructive and persuasive account through the wealth of contexts and examples provided but s/he is given enough theoretical background so that s/ he can assess what approach would be best suited for a particular field and purpose of research. The book is divided into two parts. The first part, Approaches, talks about the different theoretical positions taken by discourse analysis. The second, Contexts, explains how these different themes and their perspectives can be used to analyse specific data. Chapter 1 Theorising discourse and identity focuses on weighting the pros and cons of micro and macro analytic approaches to discourse analysis. The authors emphasize that one of the key features of micro approaches is to show that identity is locally and moment-by-moment produced. Indeed, micro approaches do not assume pre-established identity categories or power asymmetries (as is often is the case with Critical Discourse Analysis), but Affiliation LWW-CETL, University College London/King s College London, UK. Correspondence: Andrew Huxley Building, Faculty of Arts and Humanities Office, University College, London, UK. c.ros@ucl.ac.uk Sols vol , equinox publishing doi : /sols.v2i1.161

2 162 Sociolinguistic Studies rather they chart(s) the identity work of shifting selves (p. 37). On the other hand, macro approaches such as CDA are presented as a way of theorising discourse in which the ideological workings of language in representing the world (p. 44) are studied. The authors conclude that whilst the macro analytic approaches urge us to go beyond the data, the micro analytic ones are careful not to make any preconceptions about the data which could be described as theoretical imperialism. Despite analysing both approaches in equal measure, it is clear that the authors favour more interaction and data-bound analysis. This is also evident in their excellent chapter on Conversational analysis (Chapter 2), where key concepts of this form of interaction analysis are given a thorough account, and the differences between different schools within CA and their relevance for the study and understanding of identity formation in interaction are discussed in detail. Chapter 3 addresses the topic of Institutional identities and how these are built within a discursive space. One of the distinctive features of Institutional Talk (IT) is the way in which the pragmatic meaning of utterances changes according to the IT context. A very good example of this is the one in which the greeting/polite request How are you? acquires quite a different meaning in medical encounters. According to the authors, aligning to these pragmatic implications is a way of expressing institutional identity. There is a note of caution here, though, as in institutional identities it is not the institutional setting that determines the type of talk that takes place, but rather how the conversations are oriented towards the institution. Again, here Stokoe and Benwell, although picking up on the limitations of CA by pointing out analysis depends on previous knowledge of communicative contexts, institutional practices and ideologies, also blame CDA for having a strong anti-empiricist stance in which knowledge is not limited to the real and actual, and instead uses abstract theories and paradigms of social and political life (p. 104) for its analysis. To emphasize this, the term CDA is deconstructed and we are told that within this approach, discourse is not an independent entity, rather it is mutually constitutive: language both constructs social and political reality and is also constituted or conditioned by it (p. 107), a perspective that also characterises ethnographic approaches. In the last chapter of part I, Narrative identities, the authors tackle a fascinating and highly topical subject as is testified by the growing interest and literature on the use of narratives in a number of fields: an example of this is the recent surge of interest in narrative analysis in language learning (e.g. Norton 2000, Pavlenko 2003, Georgakopoulou 2006). For researchers new to this area of discourse, this chapter offers a useful summary of the origins and trajectory of narrative analysis beginning with Propp and the morphology of the Russian

3 review: ros i Solé 163 fairy tale and the well known work done by Labov on the components of narratives. Labov s approach however is presented to be inadequate to account for the interactional and dynamic contexts in which narratives take place and researchers are warned that by neglecting the interactive part of stories, they are at risk of losing out on some of the story functions that are signalled in the interaction, such as amusement, complaint, etc. Equally, positioning theory is critiqued for not using naturally occurring data and sticking instead to idealistic examples that fit the model clearly (p.140). On a more positive note, a particularly useful section of this chapter is the account of the different ways of collecting data that have been used by narrative research. The authors comment on three different approaches to collecting data: McAdam s comprehensive and detailed method in which participants are encouraged to think of their lifestyle as chapters in a book with specific titles; the BNIM (Biographic Narrative Interpretative Method), which downplays the role of the interviewer; and the FANI (Free Association Narrative Interview) approach, which adds psychoanalytic free-association to the method. It is in the second section of the book that the book really comes to life. In Contexts, three dimensions of identity work are discussed which draw on three disparate topics: commodified identities, spatial identities and virtual identities. This section is based on examples from both authors previous research and provide deep insights into the use of discourse analysis for investigating issues of identity. The first chapter deals with Commodified identities. Well-grounded in the literature on commodification of identities, consumption is theorised as a way of distinguishing oneself, achieving social status, and situating oneself in social space by the manipulation of the meaning of objects. Many of the examples provided are based on products of consumption advertised in women s magazines. It is argued that these products aspire beyond need and identity, as life-style and symbol become the real forces behind consumption. Different interpretations of consumption give different levels of agency to the consumers by acknowledging or not their creativeness and critical powers. Whereas some analysts place the consumers as passive recipients who have no power over the effect of consumerism on them, others believe that the consumer is in control and invests with personal new meanings the product on sale. The authors situate themselves in between these two poles, both allowing for creativity and acknowledging the constraints within which these cultural experts operate. In order to exemplify this, adverts from women s magazines are analysed to show how women s bodies are fragmented and are used as acts of self-consumption. In doing this, the women s experience is written out of the text. This extraordinary account of commodification can have many parallels in other fields of contemporary culture and education. Language learning, for example is an area that could be interpreted as suffering from a process of

4 164 Sociolinguistic Studies commodification in the way it has undergone skillisation of language knowledge (Phipps and Gonzalez, 2004) and its inevitable fragmentation of it. The authors pursue this analysis by offering a micro-analysis of the data and analysing the linguistic devices used to achieve commodification of women s bodies. Many of these fall into problem-solution patterns where objects of consumption are offered as temporary solutions to problems through the use of rhetorical devices. For example, they point out how the slogan flush out last year s nasties and make a fresh start (p. 179) uses the rhetorical device of a presupposition that assumes women want to get rid of some unwanted elements in their bodies. Chapter 6 deals with Spatial identities, both as they are produced and as they are located in discourse. The authors believe that there is a spatial turn in discourse, one which regards space as dynamically produced and as part and parcel of social processes. An example of how people choose their locations on a beach is used to argue that physical space is not an objective, neutral phenomenon but inescapably socially constructed by human agents and their semiotic practices (p. 208). Identity is inextricably linked to where we are, have been or are going, and spaces do not contain people but create them. Spaces are not only real but can also acquire symbolic values to which people align themselves in discourse. The authors also make interesting connections between spatiality, narrative and moral values. For example, they argue that places have moral values as it is manifest in judgments that express the particular quality of a location. The other aspect of space the authors focus on is the location where discourse and identity is produced. This invokes ethnomethodological traditions, where a link is established between space, place and conduct. Space becomes part of everyday activities. Finally, the last chapter addresses the issue of Virtual identities. Drawing on the growing literature on virtual identity, the authors signal the relationship between on-line identity with postmodern, constructed and discursive views of identity and point out that all constructionist accounts of identity are virtual. The authors then set out to find out what is distinctive about CMC (Computer Mediated Communication) in identity work. Based on their own and others research, they conclude that rather than finding specifically distinct identities for CMC, these environments mostly recreate the conditions found in real life. However, the authors identify particular linguistic forms in this medium, such as spatial metaphors and deixis and the peculiar hybrid of speech in a written-mode, which defines this discourse. For example, the authors point out that the grammar of CMC has many of the features found in spoken discourse such as non-standard, looser constructions and ellipsis, such as subject pronoun or preposition deletion (p. 260). For them, it is precisely in the mode of the discourse, and through it, that virtual identity construction happens

5 review: ros i Solé 165 in discourse. This, together with the great deal of freedom for creativity that this medium allows, lead the authors to conclude that what is different about virtual identity work does not lie in the medium itself or the type of identities it invokes, but rather on the materiality and substance of language itself and the particular forms that it adopts. On the whole, despite the author s bias for a particular type of discourse analysis, Discourse and identity succeeds in providing in an accessible way an insightful and clearly written book that will inspire many, linguists and non-linguists. But above all, it will be particularly helpful to those looking at ways of teasing out issues of identity in discourse, from a macro or a micro perspective, and in its many guises, whether it is constructed through space, consumption or virtually. References Androutsopoulos, J. K. and Georgakopoulou, A. (eds) (2003) Discourse constructions of youth identities. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. De Fina, A., Schiffrin, D. and Bamberg. M. (eds) (2006) Discourse and identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Georgakopoulou, A. (2006) Small and large identities in narrative (inter)-action. In A. De Fina, M. Bamberg and D. Schiffrin (eds) Discourse and identity Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Norton, B. (2000) Identity in language learning: Gender, ethnicity, and educational change. London: Longman. Pavlenko, A. (2003) I never knew I was a bilingual : Reimagining teacher identities in TESOL. Journal of Language, Identity and Education 2 (4): Phipps, A. and Gonzalez, M. (2004) Modern languages: Learning and teaching in an intercultural field. London: Sage. Rampton, B. (2005) Language in late modernity: Interaction in an urban school. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Discourse analysis is an umbrella term for a range of methodological approaches that

Discourse analysis is an umbrella term for a range of methodological approaches that Wiggins, S. (2009). Discourse analysis. In Harry T. Reis & Susan Sprecher (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Human Relationships. Pp. 427-430. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Discourse analysis Discourse analysis is an