Co-Narration, Intersubjectivity, and the Listener in Family Storytelling

Abstract

Abstract Storytelling in an intimate group, such as the family, underscores the intersubjective nature of the self, and co-narration illuminates the active role of audience members in oral narrative performance. By shifting my focus from analyzing a discrete text within a stream of discourse to a consideration of the dynamics of interaction in a storytelling event, I discern how a listener takes up, reshapes, and dialogizes the words of another as she moves from receptive audience member to responsive performer. At the same time, even the most monologic and complete narrative performances contain unvoiced dimensions that gesture toward meanings not given by the discourse, meanings that may or may not be recoverable for a given listener. I conclude with a plea for greater attention to the multiple and sometimes conflicting ways that tellers and listeners make sense of oral personal narratives.