The interactional dynamics of parental identity performances : A study of narratives of first-time parents

Abstract

This study explores how parental identities are constructed, negotiated and contested within narratives. By approaching identity as emergent and circulated within interaction, I offer an alternative perspective to the largely static view of parental identities as biologically ascribed with the conception of a child or institutionalized via structured positions within society. Turning to collaborative and individual narratives of six pairs of first-time Singaporean parents elicited through a series of interviews, I analyze how the interactional devices made available through the narrative, the interview and the broader sociocultural contexts are used for performing and negotiating their parental identities. Adopting an integrative approach that is informed by narrative analysis, conversation analysis, critical discourse analysis, interactional sociolinguistics and sociocultural linguistics, I examine the micro-level narrative interactions and explore the link(s) between the micro-level narrative interactions and extant macro-level discourses, social categories (e.g., gender and parenthood) and relations.