Stories Women Tell: An Ethnographic Study of Personal Experience Stories in a Women's Rap Group

This study explores communication in a women's rap group focusing on storytelling. Using a symbolic interactionist approach, storytelling was analyzed as a linguistic and a social interactional phenomenon. For nine months, the researcher acted as a participant/observer in a group of eleven young mothers who met once a week for 1 1/2 hours at a local church. Sessions were tape recorded for a five-month period; the stories told during the first eight recorded sessions were transcribed and then organizational features were analyzed. In order to select segments of talk for transcription as storytellings, members were asked to identify the stories they heard on a tape of one half of one session. Results were compared with the researcher's selections and revealed agreement as to what constituted a story. To augment the analysis of interaction in the group, interviews were conducted with each group member focusing on her impressions of the group. Members were also asked to respond to a transcript of an episode of talk.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Speech Communication

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Jenkins, Mercilee Macintyre

• Women's Studies

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(UMI)AAI8309964

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/77267