Subject: speaking through the silence , laine a . berman

speaking through the silence : narratives , social conventions , and power in java laine a . berman , school of australian and international studies , deakin university uncovering the structures and functions of conversational narratives uttered within natural social networks , laine berman shows how working-class javanese women discursively construct identity and meaning within the rigid constraints of an hierarchical social order . she does this by identifying the silences , the " unsaid " , and by revealing both the structure and function of silence in terms of its indexical reference to local meaning . it is here that the force of the javanese language as used in everyday interaction shows itself to be an extremely potent philosophical entity as well as a means of social control . thus , at least in regard to the urban poor , the book boldly questions the difference between traditional definitions of javanese elegance and oppression . this study will contribute to our understanding of the social consequences of language use , to the linguistic knowledge of indonesia and java , and to such basic linguistic issues as narrative structure and function , speech levels and styles , and indexicality features . ( oxford studies in anthropological linguistics 19 ) october 1998 276 pp . ; 8 halftones 0-19 - 510888 - 4 $ 65 . 00 oxford university press _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ for more information about linguistics titles from oxford : visit the oxford university press usa web site at http : / / www . oup-usa . org or e-mail : linguistics @ oup-usa . org
