Michael Bamberg & Neill Korobov GENDER --- A Separable Category for Analysis?
Click here to download Michael Bamberg & Neill Korobov's handout in .pdf format.

Clark University
Department of Psychology
Clark University
Worcester, MA 016909
mbamberg@clarku.edu
nkorobov@clarku.edu

Abstract

In contrast to viewing gender as a biological or socio-historical 'given'that determines personal and interpersonal actions, I approach gender as a product, locally constructed in and through 'identity work'. Viewing all discursive performance phenomena (including phonological, lexical/semantic, syntactic and pragmatic variation as well as supra-segmentational devices and 'the body') as potential resources for 'identity work', the discursive devices appropriated to accomplish ëgendered identity projects' continuously interact with attempts to simultaneously accomplish other identity projects, i.e., they serve multiple, and even at times contradictory, jobs. In line with this orientation, I will show how 10- to 15-year-olds use particular discursive resources to engage in identity projects as 'males' and as 'adolescents'. I will present brief analyses of three video-clips of (i) 10-year-olds, (ii) 12-year-olds, and (iii) 15-year-old boys in peer interactions on the topic 'girl-friends'. My analysis of the data-clips attempts to differentiate discursive devices that are functional in achieving ëadolescent workí from devices that achieve 'masculinity work', but will also highlight problems of these attempts.

The purpose of this poster is to contribute to three strands of the gender-discourse discussion: (i) What are the pros (and cons) in viewing 'gender' as locally achieved versus 'gender' as a socio-historical or biological category that is assumed to be 'out there' impacting on peopleís actions? (ii) What are the methodological implications of these two opposed views for possibilities to differentiate between particular identities, especially 'gendered identities'? (iii) Would it be advisable to merge gender analysis into the project of 'identity analysis'?

Poster Materials

Click here to download Michael Bamberg & Neill Korobov's handout in .pdf format.
A draft of Michael Bamberg & Neill Korobov's paper may be found at www.clarku.edu/~mbamberg/JPS_Symposium.htm.



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