The interactive construction of a hug sequence

Abstract

The hug or embrace, entailing in its trajectory a form of intercorporeal intertwining of body and voice, is a haptic confi guration used in constituting the activities of both greetings as well as closings (farewells) – “boundary interchanges” in Goffman’s (1971 ) terms. In performing an embrace, an action critical to the affective life of families ( Goodwin and Cekaite 2018 ) and friends, the display of emotion is a situated practice ( Goodwin et al. 2012 ), as critical as the sequential organization of the activity. C. Goodwin (1979 ) demonstrated that the shape of an utterance depends upon the moment-to-moment responses of recipients during its trajectory. Similar practices are involved in interactions entailing hugs. While Goodwin’s analysis chronicled how new segments of talk can be added to a speaker’s emerging sentence, in this chapter I analyze how in the midst of interaction a participant can add new haptic actions to achieve collaborative action. I illustrate how the hug, as a “sequence of action” ( Schegloff 2007 , 11) entailing corporeal resources rather than talk as its basic units of construction, is produced as an interactive achievement ( Schegloff 1987 ). The hug is often solicited by outstretched arms, an iconic gesture which invites and models a reciprocal action from the addressee. Talk often overlays or laminates the gestural confi guration of the hug rather than being the principal medium through which the interchange is carried out. 1