The Twenty-Dollar Piglets
The Twenty-Dollar Piglets
This chapter puts the general discussion of the previous chapters “to the test” by analyzing an incident that revolved around a very brief gossip session about a marginalized member of the society that took place during the author’s 1985 fieldwork. The analysis of the incident enables an exploration of how texts articulate with reputation, morality, the truth, personhood, and large-scale forces. In this process, the microscopic tools developed for the analysis of gossip talk are mobilized to demonstrate how they can provide an understanding of these various articulations. Indeed, analyzing the formal structure of gossip talk is not an end, but a means of apprehending issues of more general import. The chapter begins by exploring what gossip maximally contrasts with, formally, ideologically, and contextually: oratory.
Keywords: gossip, reputation, morality, truth, personhood, oratory
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