Introduction : dialogism and subjectivity -- "That was before I ever left home" : complex accounts of a simple childhood -- "If you had to work as hard as I did, it would kill you" : work, narrative, and self-definition -- "I said, 'don't you do it'" : tracing development as an empowered speaker through reported speech in narrative -- "He never did say anything about my dreams that would worry me after that" : negotiating gender and power in ghost stories -- "I'm a bad one to go pulling jokes on people" : practical joking as a problematic vehicle for oppositional self-definition -- "My singing is my life" : repertoire and performance -- Epilogue.