‘My word against his’: Micro and macro analysis of stories about violence in intimate partner relationships

Abstract

This paper uses a narrative lens to locate and analyze stereotypes about intimate partner violence (IPV) used by victim/survivors to describe the ways they made meaning about their relationships. I combine two models used for analyzing narrative: Labov & Waletzky’s (1967) and the Social Interactional Approach (SIA) (De Fina & Georgakopoulou, 2008). Stories about what counts as ‘real’ IPV emerged as the most told story across the 34 participants in the study. I show, victim/survivors of IPV have internalized sociocultural discourses about IPV that only recognize certain forms of physical abuse as IPV. I argue that evaluation clauses (Labov & Waltezky), developed to analyze the micro-context of storytelling, also index macro, sociocultural knowledge, making it a natural connecting point with SIA.