Hidden Stories in Monologues

Abstract

In this article, we present a procedure for isolating a hidden story from a monologue on an assigned topic. We define a hidden story as a story about the author's own life, accessible to the recipient of a monologue indirectly—by inference—on the basis of the rules of language use, verifiable in linguistics and literary theory. The procedure involves four stages: 1. preparing the recording and transcription of a monologue; 2. isolating and analyzing linguistically and/or narratively out-of-key elements in a monologue; 3. making a conclusion about hidden content on the basis of out-of-key elements and their contexts; 4. formulating a hidden story. We focus mainly on explaining the mechanisms of linguistic and narrative distinguishability of elements in a monologue, and describing, "step by step," consecutive stages of the procedure.