Note: This is a new version of a previously announced book.

Now Available in Paperback!

This book investigates the forms and functions of storytelling in everyday conversation. It develops a rhetoric of everyday storytelling through an integrated approach to both the internal structure and the contextual integration of narrative passages. It aims at a more complete picture of oral narrative through analysis of a wider range of natural data, including personal anecdotes told for humor, put-down stories told for self-aggrandizement, family stories retold to ratify membership and so on, as well as marginal stories and narrative-like passages to delineate the boundaries of conversational storytelling and to test the analytical techniques proposed.

Using transcriptions of stories from everyday talk, Norrick explores disfluencies, formulaicity and repetition as teller strategies and listener cues alongside global phenomena such as retelling and narrative macrostructures. He also extends his analysis to narrative jokes from conversation and to narrative passages in drama, namely Shakespeare’s “Romeo & Juliet” and Beckett’s “Endgame”.

Table of contents

Preface xi Transcription Conventions xiii Chapter 1. Approaching Storytelling in Conversation 1 Chapter 2. Internal Narrative Structure 27 Chapter 3. Formulaicity and Repetition in Storytelling 47 Chapter 4. Retelling and Retold Stories 67 Chapter 5. Narrative Contexts 105 Chapter 6. Varieties of Conversational Narrative 135 Chapter 7. Extensions of the Approach 169 Chapter 8. Conclusions and Perspectives 197 Appendixes 203 Notes 217 References 219 Name Index 229 Subject Index 231

“Norrick's volume is recommended reading for literary scholars and linguists alike.” Monika Fludernik, University of Freiburg, Germany