Alhalwachi, Fatema (2021) Narratives of infertile Muslim women: the construction of personal and socio-cultural identities in weblogs. PhD thesis, Birkbeck, University of London.
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Abstract
Based within a social constructionist paradigm and anchored on constitutive studies of research on identity within sociolinguistics and communication studies, this thesis uses a context based, socially oriented small story narrative analysis approach (Bamberg & Georgakopoulou 2008) and positioning theory (Bamberg 2007; Davis and Harré 1991), to explore the ‘how’ of identity construction in the personal narratives of infertile Muslim women. It investigates the social, cultural, religious and personal influences that emerge from and contribute to the various discursive constructions and negotiations of ‘self’ in stories women tell about their experiences. The study identifies claims and negotiations of identity in a selection of personal weblogs at both a ‘micro’ lexico-grammatical level, and ‘macro’ semantic level, addressing how these negotiations are achieved. It analyses how tellers orient to past and present selves; position self-other in the interaction; and orient to ‘master narratives’ relevant to their identity claims. Given that the issue of infertility in Muslim women has long been considered taboo and difficult to study, this thesis is novel in two respects: in ‘giving voice’ to what is typically an inaccessible and ‘silent’ minority; and more specifically in applying small story analysis to discuss the positioning acts of a group of vulnerable women communicating via weblogs, contributing to an understanding of how infertile Muslim women construct and manage their sense of self and how they use narratives as spaces of identity creation, performance and negotiation.
Metadata
| Item Type: | Thesis |
|---|---|
| Additional Information: | Originally submitted to the Department of Applied Linguistics and Communication, School of Social Sciences, History and Philosophy. |
| Copyright Holders: | The copyright of this thesis rests with the author, who asserts his/her right to be known as such according to the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988. No dealing with the thesis contrary to the copyright or moral rights of the author is permitted. |
| Depositing User: | Acquisitions And Metadata |
| Date Deposited: | 10 Sep 2021 11:39 |
| Last Modified: | 01 Nov 2023 14:40 |
| URI: | https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/45931 |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.18743/PUB.00045931 |
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