Facework as self-heroicisation: A case study of three elderly women

This paper takes a case study approach to facework, investigating how face meanings are negotiated and interpreted in the context of conversation among dyads of elderly female friends. Analysis of the dataset suggested the need for an alternative, new model of facework to account for the features of the talk, of which conversational autobiographical narrative was prominent. ‘Foundation work’ is proposed as the means whereby positively evaluated and negatively evaluated attributes are collaboratively delineated by the particular mini-culture. These attributes are seen as representative of the cultural hero and cultural anti-hero respectively. Facework is conceived as the pursuit of self-heroicisation, that is, associating oneself with that which is affirmed as heroic and eschewing that which is deemed anti-heroic. The dataset is analysed in terms of how various ‘multifunctional resources’ are utilised by the women to self-heroicise. The tendency to see older adults’ facework as motivated primarily by mitigation of face threat is challenged by the analysis, allowing facework to be seen as a mutually beneficial, positive and pro-active process.