Reshaping prior text, reshaping identities

Abstract

This analysis brings together Goffman's concept of alignment, Bakhtin's notion of dialogicality, and A. L. Becker's idea that interaction consists of ‘reshaping’ old texts into present contexts to consider how one mother reshapes her own and her child's previous discourse across three conversations to construct different alignments with her co-interlocutors and different identities for herself. The mother, Janet, who works part-time but spends most of her time caring for her three-year-old daughter, Natalie, tape-recorded nearly all of her interactions for one week. The conversations I examine involve (i) Janet ‘being Mommy’ as she deals with a misbehaving Natalie while also trying to talk on the telephone; (ii) Janet and Natalie reversing roles and playfully re-enacting this incident two days later; and (iii) Janet recounting the re-enactment to three friends the next evening during a dinner party and evaluating it in a way that distances her from the identity of a ‘full-time stay-at-home mom’. The analysis shows how specific bits of prior text are reshaped to create play, build rapport, and construct alignments that put forth particular identities at particular interactional moments. It thus illustrates how ‘the same’ prior text serves as a resource for creating multiple alignments and identities in discourse.