Information to Users

INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter free, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., m ^ s, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, begnning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6” x 9” black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. UMI A Bell & Howell Information Compaiy 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor MI 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF A DEAF NAMIBIAN REFUGEE’S LIFE STORY by Ruth Zilla Morgan A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences of the American University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology Signatures of Committee: Chair: Déan of the College School ^ 'n/?s Date 1995 The American University I 1 / • Washington D.C. 20016 THE AMER2CAN UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 9626228 UMI Microfonn 9626228 Copyright 1996, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF A DEAF NAMIBIAN REFUGEE’S LIFE STORY BY Ruth Zilla Morgan ABSTRACT This dissertation demonstrates how discourse analysis provides access to the ways in which a Deaf Namibian uses available linguistic and cultural resources to construct an identity via narrative. Life stories provide a way to analyze how individuals actively and jointly interpret and negotiate their world view, as narrating a life story involves selecting and interpreting culturally significant experiences. The data were derived from videotaped interactions of a Deaf Owambo relating his life stoiy in Namibian Sign Language to a group of Deaf Namibian peers. The structural analysis focuses on repetition of temporal lexical markers and spatial features including eyegaze movements, headtums and body shifts. Both temporal and spatial linguistic repetition work together to structure the life story in terms of hierarchically organized units, which the researcher terras in ascending order: epitopes, contratopes, chronotopes and hemitopes. These units are inter-textually related and function to give the subject’s narrative identity both structure and meaning. The anthropological interpretation involved building a theoretical framework for life story analysis. This framework demonstrates that the details of the structural analysis are critical to a post-modern deconstruction of the text in terms of narrative identity. However the structural analysis masks the unfinalizable fluid spatial elements of the text Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. which constitute the narrator’s construction of identity. The anthropological interpretation of the textual construction of socio-cultural identity hinges on the interaction between the narrative structure of the text, its thematic structure and the poetic use of spatial stylistic devices. The essence of the narrator’s Deaf Namibian identity is contained in the dialogic inter-textual relations. Ill Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation is the culmination of a long process which started in 1983 when I became interested in South African sign language while working at Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto with a group of preschool Deaf children. I had begun to learn sign language from Jabu Tshabalala. It is Jabu, to whom I owe the most for opening up the world of sign language and Deaf culture to me. He died a year later during the political unrest of 1984. I wish to thank William Leap, Ph.D., my advisor and chairman of my dissertation committee, for helping me at critical points in the course of writing this dissertation. I am also deeply indebted to the other members of my dissertation committee Robert Johnson, Ph.D. and Brett Williams, Ph.D. Bob deserves special thanks for guiding me through each step of the linguistic analysis. Through working closely with him, I learned that rigorous attention to linguistic detail pays off in the end. I want to thank Brett for her detailed reading of the text, editorial suggestions and encouragement. There are other people who influenced my thinking in critical ways along the way to whom I am grateful. In 1985 when I was doing preliminary Sign Language research while studying Applied Linguistics at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, my advisor, Rosemary Lennard, Ph.D. encouraged me to come to the USA to obtain the theoretical basis for pursuing this research. Scott Liddell, Ph.D. has been a major influence on my present work. Scott was my advisor during my Masters in Linguistics at Gallaudet University. I subsequently worked closely with him on the NSL dictionary project for which IV Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. he was the consultant. He provided invaluable insights into the structure of NSL which undoubtedly influenced this dissertation. His theoretical interest in imagery and the way that space functions linguistically in ASL impacted the development of my thinking that culminated in my ideas for ray doctoral research. Deborah Tannen, Ph.D. from Georgetown University is responsible for both teaching me how to do discourse analysis and providing an initial theoretical framework which formed the basis of my thinking about discourse and which I continue to draw on. The seeds for this dissertation were sown when she encouraged me to develop a paper I wrote for her in 1989 into a dissertation topic. In my discussions with Peter Seitel, Ph.D., from the Center for Folklife Programs and Cultural Studies, Smithsonian Institution, I gained a deeper understanding of the application of Bakhtin’s work to my analysis, particularly with regard to the notions of finalization. This dissertation is based on work supported by a Wenner Gren Predoctoral Grant for Dissertation Research, a Dissertation Fellowship from The American University and a Gallaudet University Small Grant Award for Namibian Sign Language Research. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of any of the above organizations. I am of course the most indebted to the subject of this dissertation and to the group of Deaf Namibians with whom I transcribed the data for this dissertation. At the time, we were working on the Namibian Sign Language Dictionary Project funded by the United Nation’s Council for Namibia. I had no idea at that time that I would continue working on this data as part of my doctoral dissertation. I am particularly indebted to Marius Ndilipunye Haikali for his invaluable assistance transcribing the data and for his input and discussions concerning Namibian Sign Language. My final thanks go to my family and friends without whom I could have never Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. written this dissertation. I wish that June Zimmer was alive to see the final result. June was directly responsible for my decision to enter the M.A. in Linguistics program at Gallaudet University in 1987. She inspired me to study sign language discourse through our many conversations about her work on American Sign Language discourse. Debra Aarons encouraged me to embark on this dissertation, discussed it with me endlessly and painstakingly edited the final version. Karen Young tirelessly formatted and reformatted this dissertation for days on end. My parents have offered much needed emotional and financial support over the past nine years of my graduate studies in the USA. My partner, Candace. Blase has gone beyond the call of duty, offering around the clock emotional and technical support. VI Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT......................................................................................................................

Load more