"It's weird, I was so mad": Developing Discursive Identity Defenses in Conversational "Small" Stories of Adolescent Boys

ABSTRACT:
We view identities (and masculinities) as fluid and contextually sensitive, constantly being accommodated to interlocutors through the use of increasingly sophisticated discursive skills, especially during adolescence. Based on analysis of the interactions of one cohort group of boys observed at the ages of 10 and13, we show how the development of discourse abilities is intertwined with the management of situated identities, especially through the telling of “small” stories. Specifically, our data demonstrate that 10-year-olds mount only rudimentary defenses to threatened identities whereas 13-year olds are able to construct more elaborate devices against identity challenges such as show concessions, externalizations, and normalizations within countering “small” narratives. A case is also made for our paradigm of focusing on “small” stories in quotidian conversations as windows into the resources for identity projects, both transient and more permanent. (Narrative Identity, Small Stories, Identity Threat and Defense, Longitudinal Discursive-Narrative Analysis, Contextual Interaction, Positioning)