‘We got incredibly drunk … it was damned fun’: drinking stories among Danish youth

Abstract

Drinking stories are immensely popular among contemporary Danish youth. The stories are shared with much enthusiasm in school, at parties, over the telephone and via the Internet. But why are the young so compelled by these seemingly vulgar stories? Applying the theories of, most importantly, Bakhtin (1968), Ricoeur (1991), and Jackson (2002), this paper examines a sample of drinking stories that were collected through two anthropological research projects on Danish youth. The stories were recorded through participant observation and qualitative interviews. Our analysis proposes that Danish youth employ drinking stories in order to (1) constitute narrative identity, (2) entertain, (3) cope with tragic events, and (4) explore taboos.