Narrating the intersection
body, time, space and transition in one queer life
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.34633Keywords:
sexuality, narrative, migration, coming out, queer, identity, ageingAbstract
This article examines the situated language practices of Susana, a trans woman originally from Mexico who has lived in the US Southwest for over two decades, during a 90-minute, in-depth sociolinguistic interview. The aim of this analysis is to examine the interconnectedness of coming out, migration, physical transformation (hormones, gender confirmation surgery), and ageing, with a particular focus on the indexing of time, space and transition. Methodologically, the qualitative analysis relies the concept of 'thicker intersectionalities' and employs a sociolinguistic approach to narrative analysis. Specifically, the analysis seeks to address how the concepts of the body, time, space, and transition are brought along into the narrative or brought about in the narrative, how these concepts are made relevant to a range of contexts (story-world, interview setting, beyond), how this works to make intersectionality visible, and how this visible intersectionality undermines dominant understandings of trans bodies, transition, and migration.
References
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Bamberg, Michael and Georgakopoulou, Alexandra (2008) Small stories as a new perspective in narrative and identity analysis. Text and Talk 28(3): 377–96. https://doi.org/10.1515/TEXT.2008.018
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Baynham, Mike (2005) Network and agency in the migration stories of Moroccan women. In Mike Baynham and Anna De Fina (eds) Dislocations/Relocations: Narratives of displacement 15–35. Manchester: St Jerome.
Baynham, Mike (2011) Stance, positioning, and alignment in narratives of professional experience. Language in Society 40: 63–74. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404510000898
Baynham, Mike and De Fina, Anna (2005). Dislocations/Relocations: Narratives of Displacement. Manchester: St Jerome.
Borba, Rodrigo and Ostermann, Ana Cristina (2007) Do bodies matter? Travestis’ embodiment of (trans)gender identity through the manipulation of the Brazilian Portuguese grammatical gender system. Gender & Language 1(1): 131–147. https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.2007.1.1.131
Bucholtz, Mary and Hall, Kira (2004) Theorizing in language and sexuality research. Language in Society 33(4): 469–515. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404504334020
Bucholtz, Mary and Hall, Kira (2005) Identity and interaction: a sociocultural linguistic approach. Discourse Studies 7(4–5): 585–614. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461445605054407
Bucholtz, Mary and Hall, Kira (2016) Embodied sociolinguistics. In Nikolas Coupland (ed.) Sociolinguistics: Theoretical Debates 173–98. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107449787.009
Cantú, Lionel (2002) De ambiente: Queer tourism and the shifting boundaries of Mexican male sexualities. GLQ 8(1–2): 139–65. https://doi.org/10.1215/10642684-8-1-2-139
Cantú, Lionel (2009) The Sexuality of Migration: Border Crossings and Mexican Immigrant Men. New York: New York University Press.
Carrillo, Héctor (2018) Pathways of Desire: The Sexual Migration of Mexican Gay Men. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Cashman, Holly (2018) Queer, Latinx, and Bilingual: Narrative Resources in the Negotiation of Identities. New York: Routledge.
Chávez, Karma (2013) Queer Migration Politics: Activist Rhetoric and Coalitional Possibilities. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press.
Combahee River Collective ([1977]2000) The Combahee River Collective statement. In Barbara Smith (ed.) Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology 264–74. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Crenshaw, Kimberle (1991) Mapping the margins: intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review 43(6): 1241–99. https://doi.org/10.2307/1229039
Decena, Carlos Ulises (2011) Tacit Subjects: Belonging and Same-Sex Desire among Dominican Immigrant Men. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822393900
De Fina, Anna (2013) Positioning level 3: Connecting local identity displays to macro social processes. Narrative Inquiry 23(1): 40–61. https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.23.1.03de
De Fina, Anna and Georgakopoulou, Alexandra (2012) Analyzing Narratives: Discourse and Sociolinguistic Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Deppermann, Arnulf (2013) How to get a grip on identities-in-interaction: (what) does ‘positioning’ offer more than ‘membership categorization’? Evidence from a mock story. Narrative Inquiry 23(1): 62–88. https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.23.1.04dep
Edelman, Elija Advi, and Zimman, Lal (2014) Boycunts and bonus holes: trans men’s bodies, neoliberalism, and the sexual productivity of genitals. Journal of Homosexuality 61: 673–90. https://doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2014.870438
Epps, Brad, Valens, Keja, and Johnson González, Bill (eds) (2005) Passing Lines: Sexuality and Immigration. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Georgakopoulou, Alexandra (2007) Small Stories, Interaction and Identities. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/sin.8
González, Melissa M. (2014) La loca. Transgender Studies Quarterly 1(1–2): 123–25. https://doi.org/10.1215/23289252-2399794
Guzmán, Manolo (1997) ‘Pa’ La Escuelita con mucho cuida’o y por la Orillita’: a journey through the contested terrains of the nation and sexual orientation. In Francis Negrón-Muntaner and Ramón Grosfoguel (eds) Puerto Rican Jam: Essays on Culture and Politics 209–30. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Halberstam, J. Jack (2005) In a Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives. New York: New York University Press.
Jefferson, Gail (2004) Glossary of transcript symbols with an introduction. In Gene H. Lerner (ed.) Conversation Analysis: Studies from the First Generation 13–31. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
La Fountain-Stokes, Lawrence M. (2009) Queer Ricans: Cultures and Sexualities in the Diaspora. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
La Fountain-Stokes, Lawrence M. (2014) Translatina/os. Transgender Studies Quarterly 1(1–2): 237–41. https://doi.org/10.1215/23289252-2400154
Luibhéid, Eithne (2005) Introduction: queering migration and citizenship. In Eithne Luibhéid and Lionel Cantú (eds) Queer Migrations: Sexuality, US Citizenship, and Border Crossings ix–xlvi. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Luibéid, Eithne and Cantú, Lionel (2005) Queer Migrations: Sexuality, US citizenship, and Border Crossings. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Muñoz, José Esteban. 1999. Disidentifications: Queers of Color and the Performance of Politics. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Norrick, Neal R. (2000) Conversational Narrative: Storytelling in Everyday Talk. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.203
Peña, Susana (2004) Pájaration and transculturation: language and meaning in Miami’s Cuban American gay worlds. In William Leap and Tom Boellstorff (eds) Speaking in queer tongues: Globalization and gay language 231–50. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.
Peña, Susana (2013) ¡Oye Loca! From the Mariel Boatlift to Gay Cuban Miami. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Rivera-Servera, Ramón (2012) Performing Queer Latinidad: Dance, Sexuality, Politics. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.2395967
Santa Ana, Otto, and González Bustamante, Celeste (eds) (2012) Arizona Firestorm: Global Immigration Realities, National Media and Provincial Politics. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Sanz Sánchez, Israel (2009) Creatividad léxica en una jerga gay de la frontera México-Estados Unidos. Hispania 92: 142–54.
Vargas, Deborah R. (2010). Representations of Latina/o sexuality in popular culture. In Marysol Asencio (ed.) Latina/o Sexualities: Probing Powers, Passions, Practices, and Policies 117–36. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Vidal-Ortiz, Salvador (2011) ‘Maricón’, ‘Pájaro’, and ‘Loca’: Cuban and Puerto Rican Linguistic Practices, and Sexual Minority Participation, in US Santería. Journal of Homosexuality 58(6–7): 901–918. https://doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2011.581933
Woolard, Kathryn A. (2013) Is the personal political? Chronotopes and changing stances toward Catalan language and identity. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 16(2): 210–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2012.720670
Yep, Gust (2010) Toward the de-subjugation of racially marked knowledges in communication. Southern Communication Journal 75(2): 171–5.
Yep, Gust (2016) Toward thick(er) intersectionalities: theorizing, researching, and activating the complexities of communication and identities. In Kathryn Sorrells and Sachi Sekimoto (eds) Globalizing Intercultural Communication 85–94. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. https://doi.org/10.1080/10417941003613263
Zimman, Lal (2009) ‘The other kind of coming out’: transgender people and the coming out narrative genre. Gender and Language 3(1): 53–80. https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.v3i1.53
Zimman, Lal (2014) The discursive construction of sex: remaking and reclaiming the gendered body in talk about genitals among trans men. In Lal Zimman, Jenny L. Davis and Joshua Raclaw (eds) Queer Excursions: Retheorizing Binaries in Language, Gender, and Sexuality 13–34. New York: Oxford University Press.
Zimman, Lal (2016) Sociolinguistic agency and the gendered voice: metalinguistic negotiations of vocal masculinization about female-to-male transgender speakers. In Anna M. Babel (ed.) Awareness and Control in Sociolinguistic Research 253–77. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139680448.013
Zimman, Lal and Hall, Kira (2009) Language, embodiment, and the ‘third sex’. In Dominic Watt and Carmen Llamas (eds) Language and Identities 166–78. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Bamberg, Michael and Georgakopoulou, Alexandra (2008) Small stories as a new perspective in narrative and identity analysis. Text and Talk 28(3): 377–96. https://doi.org/10.1515/TEXT.2008.018
Baynham, Mike (2003) Narrative in space and time: Beyond ‘backdrop’ accounts of narrative orientation. Narrative Inquiry 13(2): 347–66. https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.13.2.07bay
Baynham, Mike (2005) Network and agency in the migration stories of Moroccan women. In Mike Baynham and Anna De Fina (eds) Dislocations/Relocations: Narratives of displacement 15–35. Manchester: St Jerome.
Baynham, Mike (2011) Stance, positioning, and alignment in narratives of professional experience. Language in Society 40: 63–74. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404510000898
Baynham, Mike and De Fina, Anna (2005). Dislocations/Relocations: Narratives of Displacement. Manchester: St Jerome.
Borba, Rodrigo and Ostermann, Ana Cristina (2007) Do bodies matter? Travestis’ embodiment of (trans)gender identity through the manipulation of the Brazilian Portuguese grammatical gender system. Gender & Language 1(1): 131–147. https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.2007.1.1.131
Bucholtz, Mary and Hall, Kira (2004) Theorizing in language and sexuality research. Language in Society 33(4): 469–515. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404504334020
Bucholtz, Mary and Hall, Kira (2005) Identity and interaction: a sociocultural linguistic approach. Discourse Studies 7(4–5): 585–614. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461445605054407
Bucholtz, Mary and Hall, Kira (2016) Embodied sociolinguistics. In Nikolas Coupland (ed.) Sociolinguistics: Theoretical Debates 173–98. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107449787.009
Cantú, Lionel (2002) De ambiente: Queer tourism and the shifting boundaries of Mexican male sexualities. GLQ 8(1–2): 139–65. https://doi.org/10.1215/10642684-8-1-2-139
Cantú, Lionel (2009) The Sexuality of Migration: Border Crossings and Mexican Immigrant Men. New York: New York University Press.
Carrillo, Héctor (2018) Pathways of Desire: The Sexual Migration of Mexican Gay Men. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Cashman, Holly (2018) Queer, Latinx, and Bilingual: Narrative Resources in the Negotiation of Identities. New York: Routledge.
Chávez, Karma (2013) Queer Migration Politics: Activist Rhetoric and Coalitional Possibilities. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press.
Combahee River Collective ([1977]2000) The Combahee River Collective statement. In Barbara Smith (ed.) Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology 264–74. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Crenshaw, Kimberle (1991) Mapping the margins: intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review 43(6): 1241–99. https://doi.org/10.2307/1229039
Decena, Carlos Ulises (2011) Tacit Subjects: Belonging and Same-Sex Desire among Dominican Immigrant Men. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822393900
De Fina, Anna (2013) Positioning level 3: Connecting local identity displays to macro social processes. Narrative Inquiry 23(1): 40–61. https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.23.1.03de
De Fina, Anna and Georgakopoulou, Alexandra (2012) Analyzing Narratives: Discourse and Sociolinguistic Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Deppermann, Arnulf (2013) How to get a grip on identities-in-interaction: (what) does ‘positioning’ offer more than ‘membership categorization’? Evidence from a mock story. Narrative Inquiry 23(1): 62–88. https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.23.1.04dep
Edelman, Elija Advi, and Zimman, Lal (2014) Boycunts and bonus holes: trans men’s bodies, neoliberalism, and the sexual productivity of genitals. Journal of Homosexuality 61: 673–90. https://doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2014.870438
Epps, Brad, Valens, Keja, and Johnson González, Bill (eds) (2005) Passing Lines: Sexuality and Immigration. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Georgakopoulou, Alexandra (2007) Small Stories, Interaction and Identities. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/sin.8
González, Melissa M. (2014) La loca. Transgender Studies Quarterly 1(1–2): 123–25. https://doi.org/10.1215/23289252-2399794
Guzmán, Manolo (1997) ‘Pa’ La Escuelita con mucho cuida’o y por la Orillita’: a journey through the contested terrains of the nation and sexual orientation. In Francis Negrón-Muntaner and Ramón Grosfoguel (eds) Puerto Rican Jam: Essays on Culture and Politics 209–30. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Halberstam, J. Jack (2005) In a Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives. New York: New York University Press.
Jefferson, Gail (2004) Glossary of transcript symbols with an introduction. In Gene H. Lerner (ed.) Conversation Analysis: Studies from the First Generation 13–31. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
La Fountain-Stokes, Lawrence M. (2009) Queer Ricans: Cultures and Sexualities in the Diaspora. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
La Fountain-Stokes, Lawrence M. (2014) Translatina/os. Transgender Studies Quarterly 1(1–2): 237–41. https://doi.org/10.1215/23289252-2400154
Luibhéid, Eithne (2005) Introduction: queering migration and citizenship. In Eithne Luibhéid and Lionel Cantú (eds) Queer Migrations: Sexuality, US Citizenship, and Border Crossings ix–xlvi. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Luibéid, Eithne and Cantú, Lionel (2005) Queer Migrations: Sexuality, US citizenship, and Border Crossings. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Muñoz, José Esteban. 1999. Disidentifications: Queers of Color and the Performance of Politics. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Norrick, Neal R. (2000) Conversational Narrative: Storytelling in Everyday Talk. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.203
Peña, Susana (2004) Pájaration and transculturation: language and meaning in Miami’s Cuban American gay worlds. In William Leap and Tom Boellstorff (eds) Speaking in queer tongues: Globalization and gay language 231–50. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.
Peña, Susana (2013) ¡Oye Loca! From the Mariel Boatlift to Gay Cuban Miami. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Rivera-Servera, Ramón (2012) Performing Queer Latinidad: Dance, Sexuality, Politics. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.2395967
Santa Ana, Otto, and González Bustamante, Celeste (eds) (2012) Arizona Firestorm: Global Immigration Realities, National Media and Provincial Politics. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Sanz Sánchez, Israel (2009) Creatividad léxica en una jerga gay de la frontera México-Estados Unidos. Hispania 92: 142–54.
Vargas, Deborah R. (2010). Representations of Latina/o sexuality in popular culture. In Marysol Asencio (ed.) Latina/o Sexualities: Probing Powers, Passions, Practices, and Policies 117–36. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Vidal-Ortiz, Salvador (2011) ‘Maricón’, ‘Pájaro’, and ‘Loca’: Cuban and Puerto Rican Linguistic Practices, and Sexual Minority Participation, in US Santería. Journal of Homosexuality 58(6–7): 901–918. https://doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2011.581933
Woolard, Kathryn A. (2013) Is the personal political? Chronotopes and changing stances toward Catalan language and identity. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 16(2): 210–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2012.720670
Yep, Gust (2010) Toward the de-subjugation of racially marked knowledges in communication. Southern Communication Journal 75(2): 171–5.
Yep, Gust (2016) Toward thick(er) intersectionalities: theorizing, researching, and activating the complexities of communication and identities. In Kathryn Sorrells and Sachi Sekimoto (eds) Globalizing Intercultural Communication 85–94. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. https://doi.org/10.1080/10417941003613263
Zimman, Lal (2009) ‘The other kind of coming out’: transgender people and the coming out narrative genre. Gender and Language 3(1): 53–80. https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.v3i1.53
Zimman, Lal (2014) The discursive construction of sex: remaking and reclaiming the gendered body in talk about genitals among trans men. In Lal Zimman, Jenny L. Davis and Joshua Raclaw (eds) Queer Excursions: Retheorizing Binaries in Language, Gender, and Sexuality 13–34. New York: Oxford University Press.
Zimman, Lal (2016) Sociolinguistic agency and the gendered voice: metalinguistic negotiations of vocal masculinization about female-to-male transgender speakers. In Anna M. Babel (ed.) Awareness and Control in Sociolinguistic Research 253–77. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139680448.013
Zimman, Lal and Hall, Kira (2009) Language, embodiment, and the ‘third sex’. In Dominic Watt and Carmen Llamas (eds) Language and Identities 166–78. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Published
2018-12-05
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Cashman, H. R. (2018). Narrating the intersection: body, time, space and transition in one queer life. Gender and Language, 12(4), 416-436. https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.34633
