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episode takes place. Rather, the talk is conducted between HB&GB and
KH&SH, the latter couple being the parents-in-law of HB&GB's other child,
also non-present. As in the previous three episodes considered, the
participants in this encounter come together at regular intervals purely to meet
on a sociable basis.
What I categorised above as biographicals provide a routine
conversational resources on such occasions. The biographical in question
here receives what is quite typical conversation treatment in German sociable
episodes, as both sets of participants accord focused and quite serious
attention to the topic of RP&EP's studies. Throughout the duration of this
particular episode, KH&SH display considerable interest in the activities of
EP&RP. KH&SH adopt a generally interrogative standpoint, with questions
directed to HB&GB not about their own biographical activities but about their
daughter and son-in-law. In this sense, although EP&RP are absent third
parties, they are closely connected to HB&GB. This is evidenced in what is
very much a defensive standpoint being taken up by HB&GB, one not atypical
of much of German sociable conversation. As with both the English examples
and 'Internationale Arbeitslosigkeit' discussed above, this talk can be seen to
be contingent on the types of selves mobilised and the way in which these are
normatively aligned over the course of the episode.
Again, this archetypal German treatment of biographicals evidenced in
'Studieren als Hobby' is contingent on the mobilisation and alignment of
sociable selves. These however differ to those evidenced in 'Internationale
Arbeitslosigkeit' in terms of their symbolic nature.
Whereas that particular episode was dominated by the mobilisation
and alignment of agonised selves towards what developed into the problem of
'Auslaenders' and an essentially positive alignment, 'Studieren als Hobby' is
dominated by the mobilisation of two more of the routinely mobilised salient
German sociable selves identified in Chapter 7. That is, what were termed
examining and demeaned selves. Both these selves are mobilised and
aligned as sociable players in this episode. The examining self is, as I have
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