Reflexivity and the Social Construction of Identity in Interpreter-mediated Asylum Interviews

Abstract

Drawing on the work of Anthony Giddens (1976, 1984) this paper examines the notion of ‘reflexivity’ in human conduct and the difficulty in accounting for such conduct in interpreter-mediated encounters. The discussion is framed around narrative performance in asylum-seeker encounters, since it is within this particular context that the problem of the ‘reflexive agent’ is arguably thrown into sharpest relief, in contrast to other public service interpreting contexts. The focus is placed on the reflexive practices deployed by all parties to the encounter in order to ascertain the extent to which such practices impact on the applicant’s ability to assert his or her status as a ‘knowledgeable agent’ and promote his or her ‘authentic voice’ in the telling process. The account lays particular emphasis on the difficulties involved in unearthing and assessing motivation of human action as a reflexively and discursively-realized phenomenon, and ends with a call for the use of more forensically-oriented analytic practices in this context.