Marcelyn Oostendorp

Tensions, ambivalence, and contradiction: a small story analysis of discursive identity construction in the South African workplace

Abstract Recently there has been an increased focus on narratives produced within or about the workplace. A number of different analytical approaches to narrative exist and there has been quite a vigorous debate between researchers interested in life stories (or so-called big stories) and those researchers proposing an increased focus on small stories. This paper will use small story analysis (SSA) to examine workplace identity in discourses on organizational processes in one workplace in South Africa. The data for this study were collected by conducting interviews and focus group discussions with 19 members of a large South African retail company. We find that participants often introduce small stories which offer discourses that contradict or contest “official” company discourses (or the so-called sanctioned grand narrative stories). We argue that small stories can be a valuable resource to investigate organizational discourses, as participants often introduce questions of identity which do not necessarily fit the dominant organizational discourses through small stories. Small story analysis seems to be an ideal tool to investigate contradictions and inconsistencies which occur in all discourses but are typical of contexts of diversity and transformation such as the South African workplace.

THE MULTIMODAL CONSTRUCTION OF THE IDENTITY OF POLITICIANS: Constructing Jacob Zuma through prior texts, prior discourses and multiple modes

This paper will use the theoretical concepts of ‘intertextuality’, ‘interdiscursivity’ and ‘resemiotization’ to analyse four media texts on South African president, Jacob Zuma. The aims of the paper are, first, to analyse the role that intertextual references play in the construction of the identity of public figures. Second, the paper investigates the semiotic affordances of the visual and linguistic mode by tracing how previous discourses and texts about Jacob Zuma move across discursive spaces and modes. The findings suggest that reference to previous discourses play a fundamental role in the way in which Jacob Zuma is constructed. More specifically, resemiotization from the verbal to the visual mode seems to serve as a way to bring multiple discourses into a text without necessarily articulating these discourses linguistically. These findings are discussed within the broader framework of critical discourse analysis.

Language and youth identity in a multilingual setting: A multimodal repertoire approach

Abstract This article is based on a study of a community of multilingual adolescents in Johannesburg which examines participants’ linguistic repertoires and how they use their linguistic resources as a basis for identity construction, integration and performance. This kind of linguistic multiplicity lends itself to subtle and occasionally subversive positioning, as well as the creation of complex identities. Multilingual speakers call into play different aspects of their linguistic identity according to what particular circumstances dictate. For the most part, learners use their repertoires, which in some cases include non-standardised, mixed forms such as Tsotsitaal, to integrate and negotiate; and they are open to learning and accommodating other languages, with perhaps (in this data-set) one exception, namely Xitsonga. The implications of these findings are discussed with regard to language use in educational settings.

Extending resemiotisation: time, space and body in discursive representation

ABSTRACT The present article offers a critical appraisal of resemiotisation through the investigation of a controversial comment made by South African president, Jacob Zuma. The comment (that Jacob Zuma took a shower to minimise his risk of contracting HIV/AIDS) was made during a rape trial in 2006. Over a period of eight years, this comment has been continually recontextualised into different modes, and has served different functions. This article investigates newspaper reports, cartoons and YouTube clips which were collected from 2006 to 2014. All of these texts refer to the “Shower comment” in linguistic, visual or multimodal ways. Drawing on a multimodal analysis, focussing specifically on modes of representation, the article critically discusses the notions of mode, time and space in connection to resemiotisation. I argue that a Bakhtinian account of time, space and body allows for a non-binary view of semiotic phenomena that will lead to a deeper theoretical understanding of semiotic transformations in all their complexity.

“Too late for tears, dear sister”: Constructing victims and perpetrators of rape in the advice column Dear Dolly from 1984 to 2004

This article reports on the ways in which the rape of women by men is constructed in the advice column Dear Dolly , published in the South African periodical Drum Magazine . The data collected for the study spans from 1984 to 2004, encompassing both 10 years before and 10 years after the onset of democracy in South Africa. The article uses critical discourse analysis (Fairclough 2003) as main analytical tool, but also draws on critical feminist theory (Bourke 2007). The findings suggest that there has been a decrease in explicit victim blaming after 1994, but that subtle and opaque victim blaming is still evident in readers’ letters and in the responses. These rape discourses presented in Drum after 1994 are, as Bakhtin (1981) suggests, made up of multiple voices articulating different gendered discourses. In this article, we argue that even though the use of less explicit victim blaming might seem like a positive move in the representation of rape and gender, this is not always the case. The more subtle forms of victim blaming avoid contestation and consequently often go unchecked (Fairclough 2003: 58). Additionally, new rape myths are created to mitigate the responsibility of males. These processes of subtle victim blaming and new myth-making manufacture consent and make it more difficult to counteract dominant discourses.

MULTIPLE VOICES IN BILINGUAL HIGHER EDUCATION: LANGUAGE CHOICES OF AFRIKAANS/ENGLISH BILINGUALS AT STELLENBOSCH UNIVERSITY.

This paper uses a sociocultural theory and heteroglossic approach to investigate the bilingual learning experience of seven Afrikaans/English bilinguals at Stellenbosch University. In particular these bilinguals were asked to reflect on the language choices they make when completing various assessment tasks and when they are internalising new information. These students were also asked to reflect on the ways in which a bilingual learning context has changed their language proficiency. It is evident from the data that the language choices are made for a multiplicity of reasons, and that the participants draw on a number of different voices, some contradictory, to articulate their experience. These findings are discussed especially in connection to the implications for policy makers, showing that methodologies such as surveys and questionnaires in which participants are requested to make a choice, do not reflect the heteroglossic and ambiguous nature of bilingualism.

‘As an undergrad, I don’t have the right to an opinion’: Reconstructing Students as Creative Meaning-makers in the Applied English Language Classroom

The transformation of higher education has been a pressing concern for policy makers and practitioners. This article provides examples of the transformative potential of assessments designed within the framework of a multi-literacies and heteroglossic pedagogy in an Applied English Language course at a South African university. These assessments, which used multiple semiotic resources and created spaces for contesting voices, allowed students to bring their own expertise into the learning experience. This, it is argued, ultimately led to enhanced student voice and agency, two crucial components in transformative practices.

Giving Voice: Studies in honour of Christine Anthonissen

CITATION: Oostendorp, M. 2016. Giving voice : studies in honour of Christine Anthonissen. Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics Plus, 49:i-v, doi:10.5842/49-0-708.