“We’ve never been close, we’re very different”: three narrative types in sister discourse

Abstract

DraWIng on intervie\vs I conducted \vlth \\romen about their sisters, I identify three narrative types: small- n narratives, big-N Narratives and Master Nar- ratives. Small-n narratives are accounts of specific events or interactions that speakers saId had occurred with their sisters. Big-N Narratives are the themes speakers developed in telling me about their sisters, and in support ofwhich they told the small-n narratIves. 1tlaster Narratives are culture-wide ideologies shap- ing the big-N Narratives. In my sister interviews, an unstated Master Narrative is the assumption that sisters are expected to be close and similar. lhis Master Narrative explatns why nearly all the American women I interviewed organized thelr discourse around big-N Narratives by which they told me whether) how and why they are close to their sisters or not, and whether, how and why they and their sisters are similar or different4 In exploring the interrelationship among these three narrative types, I examine closely the small-n narratives told by two ''\Tomen, \-vith particular attention to the ways that the involvement strategies rep- etItion, dialogue:- and details work together to create scenes. Scenes, moreover, anchor the small-n narratives, helping them support the big-N Narratives which are motivated In turn by the culturally-driven Master Narrative.