Investigating Religious Identity in Family Discourse in Saudi
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Investigating Religious Identity in Family Discourse in Saudi Arabia: A Study of Moral Order, Narratives, Power and Solidarity Iman Al-Mulla A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Linguistics and English Language Lancaster University October 2018 i DECLARATION I declare that this thesis is my own work and has been submitted for the PhD degree from the Department of Linguistics and English Language at Lancaster University, UK. I also declare that it has not been submitted in substantially the same form for the award of a higher degree elsewhere. ii ABSTRACT A wide range of research on language and identity has focused on areas such as ethnicity, nationalism and gender. However, work on the construction of religious identity and Muslim identity in particular remains limited. Thus, this research aims to shed more light on a specific aspect of religious identity, namely, the construction of Muslim identity in family interaction in Saudi Arabia. The analysis of moment-to-moment interactions in this research is based on several bodies of work stemming mainly from Interactional Sociolinguistic research including framing (Goffman, 1974), positioning (Davies and Harre, 1990), stance-making (Du Bois, 2007), and alignment (Goffman, 1959) to uncover the various practices by which Muslim identity is (co-)constructed and negotiated. It also draws on narrative analysis (Blum-Kulka, 1997) as it pertains to identity construction in family interaction (Tannen, Kendall and Gordon, 2007). This study identifies several strategies by which religious identity is individually and collaboratively (co-)constructed and negotiated by investigating family interaction. For example, it demonstrates how moment-to-moment analysis of interactions involving parental socialising frames and collaborative arguing frames among family members reflect how daily life is organized according to religious rituals and practices and how this is reflected within the domains of space and time. This, in turn, demonstrates how a sense of moral order is created among family members. Another strategy revealed by this analysis is the use of storytelling, using narratives of a religious nature in the (co-)construction of Muslim identity for the purposes of sociability and/or socialisation. This study also investigates moment-to-moment interactions concerning religious rituals that reflect the negotiation of religious identity through different power and connection manoeuvres. These practices include questioning, guilting and critical argumentation. It also highlights that these interactions sometimes result in shifts in the power hierarchy among family members due to the loss of face. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thanks are due to Allah the Almighty, for guiding me through this journey and providing me with moral and spiritual support throughout this challenging period of my life. I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to my amazing supervisor, Dr. Karen Tusting, for her continuous support throughout my doctoral studies. She has been a truly great source of advice at all times and the door to her office was always open whenever I experienced difficulties or had queries about my research. Particular thanks go also to my internal examiner, Dr. Mark Sebba, and external examiner, Andrey Rosowsky, for reading my work and agreeing to be my examiners. I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to my father, an extraordinary man. He has been my constant inspiration due to his perseverance, resilience and endless passion for knowledge. I am also grateful to my mother who has showered me with love along the way. I would also like to express my deepest thanks to the joy of my life, my husband and my two children, for being patient with me and providing me with motivation and continuous encouragement. In addition, I must express my very profound gratitude to my sisters, all my loved ones, and all the amazing individuals I have had the honour to meet in the two beautiful cities of Lancaster and Manchester who have provided unfailing support and constant encouragement throughout my doctoral studies. Finally, I extend many thanks to the Saudi Ministry of Education and the University of Dammam for generously funding my studies. This accomplishment would not have been possible without all of these wonderful people. Thank you. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION ................................................................................................................... ii ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ..................................................................................................... iv LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................ viii LIST OF TABLES .............................................................................................................. viii LIST OF DATA EXTRACTS ................................................................................................ viii 1 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................... 1 1.1 Research Problem and Research Questions ...................................................... 1 1.2 Importance of this Research .............................................................................. 2 1.3 Saudi Arabia: The Socio-Cultural and Religious Context .................................... 4 1.4 The Status of the Family in Saudi Society .......................................................... 6 1.5 My Personal Research Journey .......................................................................... 7 1.6 Outline of the Research ..................................................................................... 8 2 CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF LITERATURE ............................................................... 10 2.1 An Overview of Identity Research ................................................................... 10 2.1.1 Identity types and processes .................................................................. 12 2.1.2 Religious identity .................................................................................... 15 2.1.3 Muslims, Arabic and identity .................................................................. 17 2.2 Family Discourse .............................................................................................. 20 2.2.1 Language socialization within family discourse ...................................... 21 2.2.2 Relationship management and negotiation ........................................... 24 2.3 Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 41 3 CHAPTER THREE: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND TO THE METHODOLOGY AND DATA SELECTION AND ANALYSIS PROCEDURES ....................................................................... 43 3.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................... 43 3.2 Interactional Sociolinguistics as an Approach to Discourse ............................. 43 3.3 IS across Different Disciplines .......................................................................... 45 3.3.1 Structural linguistics ............................................................................... 45 3.3.2 Anthropology: the contributions of Hymes and Gumperz ..................... 46 3.3.3 Sociology: the contributions of Goffman and Garfinkel ......................... 47 3.3.4 Pragmatics .............................................................................................. 48 3.3.5 Conversation analysis ............................................................................. 48 3.3.6 Broader influences of IS work ................................................................. 49 3.4 Key Analytical Terms ........................................................................................ 50 3.4.1 Identity (co-)construction ....................................................................... 50 3.4.2 Conversational style ............................................................................... 50 3.4.3 Power and connection manoeuvres ....................................................... 53 v 3.4.4 Footing and framing ............................................................................... 53 3.4.5 Alignment, positioning and stance ......................................................... 54 3.4.6 Narrative and small story analysis .......................................................... 57 3.5 Data Collection ................................................................................................ 57 3.5.1 Adopting an ethnographic approach ...................................................... 57 3.6 The Transcription Process ................................................................................ 60 3.7 The Analysis Process ........................................................................................ 61 3.8 Ethical Considerations ..................................................................................... 62 3.9 Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 63 4 CHAPTER FOUR: MAINTAINING MORAL ORDER: TEMPORAL AND SPATIAL ORGANISATION OF DAILY LIFE AROUND RELIGION AND RELIGIOUS PRACTICES ........... 64 4.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................