SPEAKING THROUGH THE SILENCE by Laine A. Berman ( 9780195108880 )

Item Details

Title:

SPEAKING THROUGH THE SILENCE
NARRATIVES, SOCIAL CONVENTIONS, AND POWER IN JAVA

By:

Format:

Hardback

List price:	£135.00
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ISBN 10:

0195108884

ISBN 13:

9780195108880

Publisher:

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS INC

Pub. date:

1 June, 1998

Series:

Oxford Studies in Anthropological Linguistics 19

Pages:

274

Description:

Laine Berman shows how working-class Javanese women use conversation to construct identity and meaning within the rigid constraints of an hierarchical social order. She does so by uncovering the structures and functions of conversational narratives uttered within natural social networks. In particular, she focuses on identifying the silences, the "unsaid", and reveals both the structure and function of silence in terms of its reference to local meaning. The force ofthe Javanese language as used in everyday interactions is shown to be an extremely potent philosophical entity as well as a means of social control. Thus, this book will contribute to our understanding of the social consequences of language use, to the linguistic knowledge of Indonesia and Java, andto such basic linguistic issues as narrative structure and function, speech levels and styles, and indexicality features.

Synopsis:

Uncovering the structures and functions of conversational narratives uttered within natural social networks, Laine Berman shows how working-class Javanese women discursively construct identity and meaning within the rigid constraints of an hierarchical social order. She does this by identifying the silences, the "unsaid", and by revealing both the structure and function of silence in terms of its indexical reference to local meaning. It is here that the force of the Javanese language as used in everyday interaction shows itself to be an extremely potent philosophical entity as well as a means of social control. Thus, at least in regard to the urban poor, the book boldly questions the difference between traditional definitions of Javanese elegance and oppression. This study will contribute to our understanding of the social consequences of language use, to the linguistic knowledge of Indonesia and Java, and to such basic linguistic issues as narrative structure and function, speech levels and styles, and indexicality features.

Illustrations:

8 halftones

Publication:

Imprint:

Oxford University Press Inc

Returns:

Non-returnable