Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Introduction to the language of life and death
- 2 Narrative analysis
- 3 The escalation of violence
- 4 Confrontations with death
- 5 Premonitions and communication with the dead
- 6 Margie Knott: “Her confrontation with the neighbors”
- 7 Gloria Stein: “They stoned the house”
- 8 Rose Norman: “The death of her younger sister”
- 9 Mary Costa: “The death of her youngest daughter”
- 10 Cache County
- 11 The vernacular origin of epic style
- 12 Historians' use of narrative
- 13 Thomas Babington Macaulay: “The death of Monmouth”
- 14 S. T. Bindoff: “The death of Elizabeth”
- 15 2 Samuel: “The death of Absalom”
- 16 The narrative view of death and life
- References
- Index
9 - Mary Costa: “The death of her youngest daughter”
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Introduction to the language of life and death
- 2 Narrative analysis
- 3 The escalation of violence
- 4 Confrontations with death
- 5 Premonitions and communication with the dead
- 6 Margie Knott: “Her confrontation with the neighbors”
- 7 Gloria Stein: “They stoned the house”
- 8 Rose Norman: “The death of her younger sister”
- 9 Mary Costa: “The death of her youngest daughter”
- 10 Cache County
- 11 The vernacular origin of epic style
- 12 Historians' use of narrative
- 13 Thomas Babington Macaulay: “The death of Monmouth”
- 14 S. T. Bindoff: “The death of Elizabeth”
- 15 2 Samuel: “The death of Absalom”
- 16 The narrative view of death and life
- References
- Index
Summary
On April 16, 1973, two members of LING560 interviewed Mary Costa, a 78-year-old resident of the South Philadelphia neighborhood that we were studying. It was not the usual interview with a first acquaintance. Both Joan Fayer and Bill Inverso were in their thirties, mature members of the same community. They had known Mrs. Costa for some time and were keenly attuned to the appropriate patterns of interaction and response. For this reason, the narrative we are about to consider shows more back channel feedback. Material in single parentheses is spoken by Joan, the leading participant at that point, and the utterances of Bill are given in double parentheses.
The narrative is a long one, divided here into nine episodes. The death of Mary's youngest daughter, Marie, is the most reportable event. It is not presented as given as in Chapter 8, but occurs in Episode 3. Yet the chief focus of the narrative is the reporting of that event as it flows through Episodes 5–9, which display the effects of that information as it passes in successive waves through sections of the community.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Language of Life and DeathThe Transformation of Experience in Oral Narrative, pp. 148 - 159Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2013