Berman Laine A. Speaking through the Silence: Narratives, Social Conventions, and Power in Java

Oxford University Press, 1998. — xviii, 256 p. — (Oxford Studies in Anthropological Linguistics). — ISBN: 0-1.9 0 10888-4.Uncovering the structures and functions of conversational narratives uttered within natural social networks, Laine Berman shows how working-class Javanese women discursively construct identity and meaning within the rigid constraints of a hierarchical social order. She does this by identifying the silences, the "unsaid", and by revealing both the structure and function of silence in terms of its indexical reference to local meaning. It is here that the force of the Javanese language as used in everyday interaction shows itself to be an extremely potent philosophical entity as well as a means of social control. Thus, at least in regard to the urban poor, the book boldly questions the difference between traditional definitions of Javanese elegance and oppression. This study will contribute to our understanding of the social consequences of language use, to the linguistic knowledge of Indonesia and Java, and to such basic linguistic issues as narrative structure and function, speech levels and styles, and indexicality features.Setting the Scene
Introduction: Untold Stories
The Politics of Social Interaction
Language and Power in Java
The Javanese Language: Speech Levels
Toward a Community-Centered Approach
Approaches to the Study
Field Stories
The Mask Metaphor
Organization of the Book
Ideologies of Gender and the Social Positioning of Women
Gender Ideologies: Macro Levels of Controlling
Female Identity
Language and Gender
Reproducing Ideologies of Gender
Ideologies of Class and Gender
Agency as Responsibility
Narrating Gender
Defining Narratives
Dimensions of Oral Narrative
What Is a Narrative
Narratives and Identity
Structuring the Analysis of Narratives
The Structure of Narratives
The Abstract
Orientation
Complicating Action
Evaluation
CodaLocating Javanese Oral Narratives
Past-Time Adverbials
Reported Speech
Shilling Speech Levels
Text Boundary IndexicalsParticipation in Social Contexts
Empowering the Powerless: The Coconstruction of Experience
Participation as Responsibility
Introduction to the Data
Positioning the Diseinpowered
Empowerment through Unity
Evaluation Tropism
The Repositioning: Unity and Its AccomplishmentsStatus, Gender, and the Management of Information
Negotiating Participant Status
Narratives of Empowerment
Responsible Participation as ChoiceRespectful Intimacy and the Production of Identity
Participation Frameworks and Positioning
Introduction to the Conversation
Repetition in Intimacy and Asymmetry
Participation and Pronouns
Sharedness and Topic
Facing Inequality
Repetition and Sense Making
Evaluation Strategies and Information
Topics of DefianceConclusion