Humor, Identity, and Belonging

Chapter 5 Performing Gaijin

The ways that identities are represented in interaction are varied and dynamic, made relevant by participants’ talk in and for the doing of social action (Antaki, Condo & Levine 1996, Antaki & Widdicombe 1998, De Fina, Schiffrin & Bamberg 2006). For instance, although an American is objectively identifiable as an American prior to and throughout a conversational event, this fact does not necessarily or inevitably influence the trajectory or content of that interaction. It is possible, and has been frequently observed, for participants in intercultural interaction to engage with each other the same as they would with people from their own cultural background, effectively rendering their externally observable cultural ...