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“Home Is More Than Just a Place”: Oral Personal Narrative Storytelling in Central Appalachia

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“Home Is More Than Just a Place”: Oral Personal Narrative Storytelling in Central Appalachia University of Kentucky UKnowledge Theses and Dissertations--Linguistics Linguistics 2020 “HOME IS MORE THAN JUST A PLACE”: ORAL PERSONAL NARRATIVE STORYTELLING IN CENTRAL APPALACHIA Brandon Jent University of Kentucky, [email protected] Author ORCID Identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2251-3988 Digital Object Identifier: https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2020.215 Right click to open a feedback form in a new tab to let us know how this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Jent, Brandon, "“HOME IS MORE THAN JUST A PLACE”: ORAL PERSONAL NARRATIVE STORYTELLING IN CENTRAL APPALACHIA" (2020). Theses and Dissertations--Linguistics. 35. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/ltt_etds/35 This Master's Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Linguistics at UKnowledge. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations--Linguistics by an authorized administrator of UKnowledge. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STUDENT AGREEMENT: I represent that my thesis or dissertation and abstract are my original work. Proper attribution has been given to all outside sources. I understand that I am solely responsible for obtaining any needed copyright permissions. I have obtained needed written permission statement(s) from the owner(s) of each third-party copyrighted matter to be included in my work, allowing electronic distribution (if such use is not permitted by the fair use doctrine) which will be submitted to UKnowledge as Additional File. I hereby grant to The University of Kentucky and its agents the irrevocable, non-exclusive, and royalty-free license to archive and make accessible my work in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I agree that the document mentioned above may be made available immediately for worldwide access unless an embargo applies. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of my work. I understand that I am free to register the copyright to my work. REVIEW, APPROVAL AND ACCEPTANCE The document mentioned above has been reviewed and accepted by the student’s advisor, on behalf of the advisory committee, and by the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS), on behalf of the program; we verify that this is the final, approved version of the student’s thesis including all changes required by the advisory committee. The undersigned agree to abide by the statements above. Brandon Jent, Student Dr. Jennifer Cramer, Major Professor Dr. Allison Burkette, Director of Graduate Studies “HOME IS MORE THAN JUST A PLACE”: ORAL PERSONAL NARRATIVE STORYTELLING IN CENTRAL APPALACHIA ________________________________________ THESIS ________________________________________ A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Linguistic Theory and Typology in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky By Brandon Jent Lexington, Kentucky Director: Dr. Jennifer Cramer, Professor of Linguistics Lexington, Kentucky 2020 Copyright © Brandon Jent 2020 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2251-3988 ABSTRACT OF THESIS “HOME IS MORE THAN JUST A PLACE”: ORAL PERSONAL NARRATIVE STORYTELLING IN CENTRAL APPALACHIA This project seeks a linguistic understanding of oral personal narrative storytelling in Central Appalachia, particularly as it manifests in Eastern Kentucky, with aims of providing insight into the Appalachian storyteller trope (e.g., Montgomery 1998). Structural and discursive elements of oral personal narrative were identified and positioned within their sociocultural context through discourse analysis and narrative studies. Data were collected from story circles, a methodology first implemented in cultural and community organizing spaces in the South and throughout Appalachia (Roadside Theater 2014, Junebug Productions n.d.). The collected stories were transcribed and analyzed through a discourse analysis framework that combines discourse pragmatics, sociocultural linguistics, and narrative analysis (e.g., Grice 1975, Ochs 2004, Bucholtz and Hall 2005, Davies 2008, Falconi and Graber 2019). A post-mortem survey established a baseline for rootedness, or place-based identity (Reed 2016), as well as demographic information, task comfortability, and self- and peer-evaluation. The author posits Central Appalachians approach oral personal narrative structure and performance in a stylistically unorthodox manner. Several potential explanations for the prevalence of the storyteller trope in and outside of the region are offered, limited by their need for further study. KEYWORDS: Appalachian Englishes, Central Appalachia, discourse analysis, narrative analysis, sociolinguistics, storytelling Brandon Jent (Name of Student) May 8th, 2020 Date “HOME IS MORE THAN JUST A PLACE”: ORAL PERSONAL NARRATIVE STORYTELLING IN CENTRAL APPALACHIA By Brandon Jent Dr. Jennifer Cramer Director of Thesis Dr. Allison Burkette Director of Graduate Studies May 8th, 2020 Date DEDICATION To my mother, my family, my friends, my community, my region, and to all Appalachian mountain peoples past, present, and future: I am here, in every sense of the word, because of y’all. I dedicate not only this thesis, but my life and its work to the protection, stewardship, and betterment of our home for as long as I possibly can. Until my hand is forced or my last breath is drawn, my place is at home. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It is of immense personal importance to me to first acknowledge that this thesis was written on ᏣᎳᎫᏪᏘᏱ and Shawnee lands and submitted to an institution on Osage, ᏣᎳᎫᏪᏘᏱ, Shawnee, Adena, and Hopewell lands. While Indigenous issues have not been addressed in what is to follow, I refuse to write about language, place, identity, and belonging in Appalachia without remembering and lifting up the original and rightful guardians of the mountains…their languages, their communities, their stories, their hardships. I urge not only linguists but all humanities and social science scholars on Turtle Island and beyond to reflect on how you and your respective fields of study interact with this. I also encourage you to pay tribute not just in words, but with appropriate actions. It is my intention to do the same. The number of people that have supported me on this journey are innumerable; while I cannot mention them all here, I hope to be able to do so in person. To my participants, thank you for trusting me with your stories. I hope I have done right by each of you, as well as our communities and our region. To my Chair, Dr. Cramer, thank you for over a decade of instruction, mentorship, and encouragement. You have now guided both my first research project as an undergraduate and my last one as a graduate student at UK, with countless more in between, and this thesis is a testament to your dedication, skill, and integrity as an educator. To my committee, Dr. Barrett and Dr. Lauersdorf, thank you both for your years of instruction and guidance as well. To the late Dr. Michael Montgomery, thank you for the warmth and sense of home you gave me from the moment I met you. Thank you for helping to pave the way: you have and will continue to inspire Appalachianists for generations to come. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................. iii LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................... vi INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 1 1. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE ..................................................................... 2 1.1. DISCOURSE ANALYSIS AND NARRATIVE .............................................. 2 1.2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS............................................................... 6 1.3. STORYTELLING IN THE US AND APPALACHIA ....................................... 8 1.4. THE ELIZABETHAN ENGLISH MYTH AND THE STORYTELLER TROPE ....11 2. METHODOLOGY .......................................................................................15 2.1. STORY CIRCLES..................................................................................15 2.2. ROOTEDNESS, COMFORTABILITY, AND EVALUATION SURVEY .............17 2.3. TRANSCRIPTION .................................................................................18 3. DATA ANALYSIS ......................................................................................19 3.1. STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION OF CENTRAL APPALACHIAN STORYTELLING ................................................................................................................20 3.1.1. DIGRESSION .................................................................................20 3.1.2. REPETITION ..................................................................................25 3.1.3. SUMMATION AS END-FRAMING.....................................................28 3.2. NARRATIVE PRACTICE AND PERFORMANCE ........................................28 3.2.1. (RE)CONSTRUCTING, MANAGING, AND NEGOTIATING IDENTITY ....29 3.2.2. IDENTITY, PLACE, COMMUNITY AND EXTERNAL SOCIAL FORCES ..34 3.3. ROOTEDNESS, COMFORTABILITY, AND EVALUATION ...........................40 4. DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS ...............................................................44 4.1. NARRATIVE UNORTHODOXY ..............................................................44 4.2. ISOLATION OR INNOVATION? PRESERVATION OR UTILITY? ..................48 4.3. AWARENESS,
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