Telling the Success Story: Acclaiming and Disclaiming Discourse

226 Pages·1997·0.69 MB·English

by  Pamela J. Benoit

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Telling the Success Story

title: Telling the Success Story : Acclaiming and Disclaiming Discourse
SUNY Series in Speech Communication
author: Benoit, Pamela J.
publisher: State University of New York Press
isbn10 | asin: 0791433188
print isbn13: 9780791433188
ebook isbn13: 9780585076805
language: English
subject Self-presentation, Interpersonal communication, Success in
business.
publication date: 1997
lcc: BF697.5.S44B46 1997eb
ddc: 153.6
subject: Self-presentation, Interpersonal communication, Success in
business.
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SUNY Series in Speech Communication Dudley D. Cahn, Jr., Editor

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Telling the Success Story
Acclaiming and Disclaiming Discourse
Pamela J. Benoit
State University of New York Press

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Published by
State University of New York Press
© 1997 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may
be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, address the State University of New York Press,
State University Plaza, Albany, NY 12246
Production by Bernadine Dawes Marketing by Fran Keneston
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Benoit, Pamela J., 1954
Telling the success story : acclaiming and disclaiming discourse /
Pamela J. Benoit.
p. cm. (SUNY series in speech communication)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7914-3317-X (hardcover : alk. paper). ISBN 0-7914-3318-8
(pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Self-presentation. 2. Interpersonal communication. 3. Success
in business. I. Title. II. Series
BF697.5.S44B46 1997
153.6dc21 96-47391
CIP
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

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Contents
Preface vii
1 Self-Presentation and the Success Story 1
2 Winning the Prize: Nobel Laureates Accept the Award 27
3 The Thrill of Victory: Athletes Tell Their Success Stories 51
4 Cosmetic Queens in Pink Cadillacs: Recasting Women's Success
Stories in Mary Kay Cosmetics 77
5 How the Dream is Realized: Talking about Success in Mary Kay
Cosmetics 111
6 Conclusion 145
Notes 167
Appendix 171
References 183
Index 201

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Page vii
Preface
Self-presentation of success occur in the acceptance addresses of Academy award winners, President Clinton's attempts to take
credit for improving economic conditions, corporations' annual report to stockholders, autobiographies, and the press releases
from NASA after Hubble was repaired and started to transmit clear pictures. There are also the stories by daughter tells about
figuring out proofs in geometry, the experiences of my colleague who managed to meet a publication deadline, and the
narratives of graduate students after they receive a job offer.
While self-presentations are fundamental to the negotiation of identities and affect relational outcomes, they have not received
the attention of communication scholars. The purpose of this book is to describe the discursive strategies of success stories as a
form of self-presentation. I chose to analyze the success storied of Nobel Prize winners, athletes, and Mary Kay distributors.
Nobel Prize winners tell their success stories in acceptance addresses. This case was interesting because the award is well
known and the ultimate form of recognition. The pervasiveness of sports in our culture (and in our living rooms) made the
success stories of athletes an attractive case for analysis. I realized after completing these two analyses that my tellers

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Page viii
were predominantly men so I began to search for a context in which women told their success stories. I found the discourse of
Mary Kay distributors at weekly success meetings fascinating and appropriate to my purpose. The women of "Cathy's Comets,"
the group I observed for five months, were gracious and I appreciate their willingness to let me observe meetings and interview
them about their successes. These three cases were engaging and varied contexts for examining success stories.
The publication of this book represents a personal achievement, and I find myself quite self-conscious as I make use of the same
strategies I describe in the book. I see this book as an opportunity to expose a fruitful subject for interpersonal scholars rather
than an exclusive theoretical treatment of self-presentation. I think the book lays the foundation for a promising line of inquiry.
I would like to thank Dudley Cahn, the series editor, for his advice and encouragement as well as the anonymous reviewers of
the manuscript. At SUNY Press, Priscilla Ross, Jennie Doling, Bernadine Dawes, and Fran Keneston, were generous with their
assistance and patience. I would also like to thank copyeditor Maria den Boer. Barbara O'Keefe continues to be my role model.
She first introduced me to qualitative methods and taughnt me to ask interesting questions. Mary Jeanette Smythe gave me the
time I needed to finish this book and has been an important mentor. Michael Kramer and Stuart Palonsky read versions of
chapters and offered helpful suggestions and examples. Many of my graduate students were supportive but special thanks are
reserved for Sue Hinton who read field notes, drafts, and entered codes in ETHNOGRAPH for the Mary Key chapters. My
parents believed I could do anything, my brother tutored me on the finer points of golf and baseball for the chapter on sports,
and my sister managed to be supportive even when our own life was chaotic. My husband, Bill, read many drafts and was an
invaluable editor (and friendly critic) while Jennifer cheerfully endured having a "maniac" for a mother temporarily.

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Page 1
1
Self-Presentation and the Success Story
It might be said of self-praise (if it is not entirely shameful and ridiculous) that if we praise ourselves fearlessly, something
always sticks.
Francis Bacon
If you want people to think well of you, do not speak well of yourself.
Blaine Pascal
Success and success stories are cultural preoccupations. Corporate deals, medical advances, peace treaties, Academy Awards,
elections and the passage of bills, Man of the Year, movie grosses and Nielsen ratings, Forbes' list of the world's richest, my
sister's new free-lance job, my advisee's dissertation defense, my daughter's superior rating at her piano competition, and my
neighbor's "best yard" award are the substance of success stories. How do individuals tell their own success stories when they
want self-praise to stick but they also want to avoid an impression of arrogance?
Self-presentations are fundamental to interpersonal communication. Individuals construe and negotiate their identities with
others and give meaning to their discursive behaviors. Relational outcomes, like social approval, are contingent on self-
presentations. The self-presentation of a personal success is a particularly exquisite interpersonal accomplishment. The creation
and negotiation of a successful identity is poised within competing goals of self-enhancement and modesty.
Beyond Goffman's (1959) The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, self-presentations have not received the attention they
deserve from interpersonal scholars because the relevant

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