Orienting to the category “ordinary – but special” in an Australian-Italian courtship and marriage narrative

Abstract

This article explores the possibilities of working ethnomethodological and conversation analysis methods into narrative analytic research, in relation to the understanding of narrative practices and identity work carried out in the course of the interview interaction. More specifically, we discuss how a storyteller (Olivia) in a research interview inserts a complaint story about her mother's intense objection to her choice of partner, into a relatively ordinary romance tale, and subsequently subverts it. Various conversational strategies, such as recipient design, topic shift and evaluation and assessment, are worked alongside the narrative dimensions of tellibility, tellership and moral stance (Ochs & Capps, 2001) to demonstrate the narrative achievement of an ordinary – but special – identity, in the retelling of events related to Olivia's courtship and the first few weeks of her marriage. (Australian-Italian Narrative Research, Ethnomethodology, Conversation Analysis)