Crossing borders

Abstract

In this article I examine the construction of time and space as orientation elements in narratives that recount disorienting experiences. I focus on how narrators articulate orientation and on how listeners engage in interactional work to make sense of narrated events. I argue that orientation management in storytelling illustrates how the use of linguistic resources connects narrators and interlocutors to micro and macro social contexts. I also suggest that consideration of the role played by orientation in different types of narratives has two important methodological consequences: it leads analysts to look critically at received notions about narrative structure, and it opens new paths for the analysis of the multiple links between narratives and social contexts. The phenomena analyzed include vagueness in the provision of orientation details, interactional negotiations over orientation, predominance of space over time orientation in certain narratives or narrative sections, and use of shared conventions for narrating the border crossing experience. The data for the article come from 13 chronicles of the border crossing told during sociolinguistic interviews by undocumented Mexican immigrants to the United States. (Narrative, Immigrants, Orientation, Time, Space, Storytelling)