Department of Sociology and Gerontology, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio.
Department of English; Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies; and Black World Studies, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio.
Gerontologist. 2020 Jul 15;60(5):821-830. doi: 10.1093/geront/gnz122.
Although there is a rich literature on place and home within gerontology, few studies have considered how place acts as identity markers for older African Americans. Since narratives and stories represent ways of expressing self and identity through ordered talk, they offer an interesting way to consider how people age biographically such as through links between place and self.
We analyzed small stories (i.e., stories that can appear as snippets of talk immersed within a larger narrative) from five African Americans (three women, two men, ages 78-93 years) to better understand "place" in the context of their lives.
Overall, place in participants' small stories was linked to the African American oral tradition and, for some, the Great Migration (1915-1970) from south to north. Place identity in the small stories therefore went beyond fond reminisce and instead became a type of resistance to dominant narratives of place.
Studying small stories can therefore be an important tool in better understanding deeply personal experiences of place for under-represented elders.
尽管老年学领域有大量关于地点和家的文献，但很少有研究考虑地点如何成为老年非裔美国人的身份标志。由于叙事和故事是通过有序的谈话来表达自我和身份的方式，因此它们提供了一种有趣的方式来考虑人们如何通过地点和自我之间的联系来进行传记式的衰老。
我们分析了来自五名非裔美国人（三女两男，年龄 78-93 岁）的小故事（即可以出现在更大叙事中谈话片段中的故事），以更好地理解他们生活背景中的“地点”。
总的来说，参与者的小故事中的地点与非裔美国人的口头传统有关，对一些人来说，还与 1915 年至 1970 年从南方到北方的大迁徙有关。因此，小故事中的地点身份不仅仅是美好的回忆，而是成为了对主流地点叙事的一种反抗。
因此，研究小故事可以成为一种重要工具，更好地理解代表性不足的老年人对地点的深刻个人体验。
