Intertextuality in interaction: Reframing family arguments in public and private

Abstract

Building on Becker's notion of prior text and Bakhtin's of dialogicality, I explore intertextuality in family discourse by tracing how three couples' conflicts about domestic responsibilities are recycled, reframed, and rekeyed over time, both between each other and in conversation with others: in one case with a friend, and in another with the couple's child. I use the term ‘recycling’ for situations where a topic is closed then arises again later in the same or a different conversation; ‘reframing’ for a change in what the conversation is about; and ‘rekeying’ for a change in the tone or tenor of an interaction. I trace a conflict in each of three families—the first two briefly, the third at length—in order to examine how speakers negotiate conflicts about the division of household responsibilities. In the third example, analysis helps explain why the issue of household responsibilities carries so much weight. In all three examples, restoring harmony was accomplished in part by reframing in a humorous key, and in ways that reinforced the speakers' shared family identities. The paper thus demonstrates how the abstract concept, intertextuality, actually works in everyday interaction.