Such studies spotlight the multifunctionality of language-the idea that language practices, including those of narrative, do more than convey words and reflect on events they are form of social action through which people create worlds. We have chosen this focus because narrative has long been at the center of sociocultural studies of language and because this work is able to most thoroughly theorize narrative. While studies of narrative can be found in nearly every field in the social sciences and humanities-and across the subfields of anthropology-in this bibliography, we concentrate on narrative scholarship in sociocultural studies of language in linguistic anthropology and the closely related field of sociolinguistics. Instead, as the works discussed in this bibliography show, anthropologists focus on situatedness, interaction, and power in the production of narratives, probing not only the culturally and historically specific practices that constitute narrative in particular contexts but also who does and does not have the right to tell stories. While the pervasiveness of narrative draws the attention of anthropologists, they generally resist presumptions of narrative primordiality. The pervasive character of narrative has led some scholars to assert that storytelling is a primordial human capacity: an inherent ability with which we are born, one that separates us from other animals. Such accounts are pervasive, appearing in a stunning array of settings, from religious rituals to gossip sessions. Narrative is a way of using language and other signs (images, gestures, etc.) to produce a coherent account that posits interconnection between past, present, and future events.
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