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Trained Identities: Exploring Emergent Identities Aboard One Slow‐Moving Train
Author(s) -
Leggett William H.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
anthropology and humanism
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.153
H-Index - 17
eISSN - 1548-1409
pISSN - 1559-9167
DOI - 10.1111/anhu.12255
Subject(s) - storytelling , identity (music) , silence , negotiation , narrative , space (punctuation) , sociology , aesthetics , linguistics , art , social science , philosophy
Summary This article explores processes of identity negotiation through talk and body language among a small community of travelers aboard a cross‐country train. I explore the emergent and contingent nature of narrative as well as the role of body language and silence in the construction of self and other in a space separate from the usual social networks that inform our senses of self. I argue that aboard the train we were able to invent ourselves anew, making of ourselves what we wanted with the understanding that we would never meet again and that our stories could go largely unchecked. At the same time, I note the importance of structural identity markers in our storytelling and place‐making actions.