5. Types of gossip Lingua Inglese 2 LM

 Context - public and private  Quality - serious and not serious  Ethics - good and bad;

Typical contexts  home  workplace  public space Gossip can take place anywhere at any time. Analysis of the context needs to look at the extent to which the gossip is public or private and the number and types of speaker Involved.

episoden.speakersPublic/private? “it’s carmela’s uncle” Bacala, tony, junior, janice Public space, public gossip “he’s my nephew in name only” Bacala, tonyPublic space, private gossip “he makes me laugh your uncle” Bacala, tonyPublic space, private gossip “he’s really sickTony, junior, janice Private space, semi- private gossip

 Gossip between two people is always private and tends to be more intimate.  Gossip in large groups is more public and less oriented towards intimacy, although this may not be the case with a large group of friends who know each other particularly well  Gossip can of course be private in a public space (two friends at work) or public in a private space (a party in your house)

 Policing is about safeguarding the morals of a group or community by evaluating the behaviour of individuals. Since policing is “serious” gossip, it is usually done in a more private context (gossip between two or three people) or in a public context which is dedicated to policing issues (e.g. an internet forum about a particular topic)

 Updating  Self-advertising  Advising  Policing  Deceiving

 Gossip as “distilled malice”. It plays with reputations, circulating truths and half-truths and falsehoods about the activities, sometimes about the motives and feelings, of others. Often it serves serious (possibly unconscious) purposes for the gossipers, whose manipulations of reputation can further political or social ambitions by damaging competitors or enemies, gratify envy and rage by diminishing another, generate immediately satisfying sense of power, although the talkers acknowledge no such intent.  “Serious gossip takes place in private, at leisure, in the context of trust, usually among no more than two or three people.... It provides a resource for the subordinated... a crucial means of self- expression, a crucial form of solidarity” (Spacks, pp. 3, 5).

“My dear Arthur, I never talk scandal. I only talk gossip. What is the difference between scandal and gossip? Oh! Gossip is charming! History is merely gossip. But scandal is gossip made tedious by morality.” Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's FanOscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan

PRIVATEPUBLIC SERIOUS MALICIOUS

 Functions  Structure  Context  public or private  level of intimacy/seriousness

 when it improves our understanding of social reality  when it improves social institutions  when it counteracts secrecy  when it enforces social values  when it promotes intimacy between people  when it brings pleasure to people because it’s fun. e.g. Oscar Wilde – “history is gossip”; it’s fun to talk about people when you don’t judge them (people are interesting)

What is gossip and what are rumours? Why do we do it? How to deal with it?  Girl  Baseball cap  Glasses  Blonde boy

 It’s hypocritical; you are doing something which you do not want other people to do about you  you are treating another person as a means to your own ends (deceit/cheating function)  you are damaging someone’s reputation  it is like eating junk food - an unhealthy habit, bad for the spirit  other people’s affairs are none of my business

 Functions  Structure  Context  public or private  level of intimacy/seriousness  level of malice (serious/intimate)

 updating  entertaining  deceiving  self-advertising  advising  policing

PRIVATEPUBLIC SERIOUS + GOOD? MALICIOUS + BAD ?