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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Performing Identities and Constructing Meaning in Interpersonal Encounters

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This paper presents a communicational semiopragmatics approach to the question of identity in interpersonal and intercultural communication. The model which we have developed (Boutaud, 2005, Frame, 2008) seeks to relate macro-level and micro-level approaches to communication (both in terms of culture and of identity), in order to take into account both the prefigured and the emergent aspects of meaning construction in an interpersonal encounter. The concept of identity is treated from a symbolic interactionist point of view, and more precisely within the theoretical framework of identity theory (Stryker, 1980, Stryker & Burke, 2000, Burke et al., 2003, Burke, 2004), applied to multiple identities. This theory posits identities as idiosyncratic social constructs, based on role performance. The model presented centres on a "figurative context" composed of three levels of meaning: prefigured meanings (cultural level), configured meanings (social / situational level) and performed meanings ("figurative" / interactional level). By taking into account and relating these three levels of meaning, the approach avoids the risks of cultural, social and psychological determinism or reductionism.