The Reluctant Storyteller

This thesis investigates the ontological nature of context as it occurs in the ethnography of performed narrative. Through the analysis of a transcribed performance, context is shown to have two distinct perceivable ontologies: context as a narrated, shared space and context as a discursive negotiation between multiple subjectivities. Shifting into performance generates the production of intimate meaning between the individuals involved. Performed meaning depends upon the alternative hegemony established by the engaged participants in the performance. In order to propel beyond the postmodern challenge to its representational authority, ethnography must be re-conceptualized as a creative process that creates meaning through the same affective authority as performance.Undergraduate Research Office at The Ohio State UniversityNo embarg