A Place to Stand Politics and Persuasion in a Working-Class Bar

by Lindquist, Julie

• ISBN13: 9780195140378
• ISBN10: 0195140370
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-01-17
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Linguists have become increasingly interested in examining how classculture is socially constructed and maintained through spoken language. JulieLindquist's examination of the linguistic ethnography of a working-class bar inChicago is an important and original contribution to the field. She examines howregular patrons argue about political issues in order to create a group identitycentered around political ideology. She also shows how their political argumentsare actually a rhetorical genre, one which creates a delicate balance betweengroup solidarity and individual identity, as well as a tenuous and ambivalentsense of class identity.

Table of Contents

Rhetorical Practice and the Ethnography of Class Culture	3	(22)
A Place in the Middle: Behind Bar at the Smokehouse	22	(18)
A Place to Be: The Smokehouse as Local Institution	40	(17)
Across the Table: Walter, Joe, Arlen, Maggie, and Perry	57	(16)
A Place to Tell It: Smokehouse Themes and Topoi	73	(46)
A Place to Stand: Argument as a Class Act	119	(54)
A Place for What If: Politics and Persuasion at the Smokehouse Inn	173	(6)
Notes	179	(16)
References	195	(6)
Index	201