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‘I've got a daughter now man it's clean man’: Heteroglossic and intersectional constructions of fatherhood in the spontaneous talk of a group of young southeast London men

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 August 2021

Pia Pichler Open the ORCID record for Pia Pichler [Opens in a new window]
Pia Pichler*
Affiliation:
Goldsmiths, University of London, UK
*
Address for correspondence: Pia Pichler Department of English and Comparative Literature Goldsmiths, University of London New Cross London SE14 6NW, UK p.pichler@gold.ac.uk
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Abstract

This article provides an insight into the heteroglossic and intersectional construction of fatherhood in the self-recorded, spontaneous talk of a group of young men from ethnically and racially mixed working-class backgrounds in southeast London. By adopting an interactional sociolinguistic approach, informed by Bakhtin's (1981, 1984, 1986) work on dialogicality and Tannen's (1989, 2004) notion of constructed dialogue, this article explores the young men's use of voices for their positioning in a range of fathering discourses which are shaped by and shape intersectional and hegemonic masculinities. Intersections of race, ethnicity, and social class inform many of the young men's positions, especially in their talk about the influences of hip hop on their children. This polyphony of voices allows the group to balance traditional discourses of fathers as providers, protectors, and moral guides with contemporary models of intimate and involved fatherhood, but also competing discourses of virile masculinity and bad boy identity. (Dialogicality, discourse, ethnicity, fatherhood, hegemony, heteroglossia, intersectionality, identity, masculinity, race, social class, voice)*

Type
Article
Information
Language in Society , Volume 52 , Issue 1 , February 2023 , pp. 51 - 78
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

*

Thank you to the editors and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive and helpful comments on an earlier version of this article. Thank you also to Jen Coates, for our regular chats about all things gender and politics. Above all, I continue to be grateful to Tim, Nath, Joe, and Les for allowing me to listen to and write about their friendship talk.

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