Enacting solidarity and ambivalence: Positional identities of Arab American women

Abstract

In this research, I investigate how a group of Arab American women constructed their identities through their talk during focus group discussions. The research is based on a sociocultural view of identity as primarily social, and inclusive of the positions and roles that a person takes during moment-to-moment interaction and discourse (Bucholtz and Hall, 2005). This is compatible with a view of identity and discourse as interrelated and interdependent (Norton, 2000). I relied heavily on Bucholtz and Hall’s (2005) proposed framework for analyzing identities in talk. The results indicated that the women’s positionings of themselves through talk were characterized by affiliation toward each other and were imbued with ambivalence and uncertainty, thus pointing toward identities in the making.