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Discourse Studies
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‘Calm down!’: the role of gaze in the interactional management of hysteria by the police

Mardi Kidwell

University of New Hampshire

Gaze is a central mechanism for the entry into and coordination of face-to-face interaction. As such, persistent and sustained gaze withdrawal may indicate significant troubles in an interaction. This article examines how two police officers, in seeking to calm a hysterical woman whose grandson has been shot, treat her refusal to gaze at them as a central component of her persisting hysteria. Toward the end of getting the woman to calm down, one officer seeks her return gaze using embedded and exposed methods of gaze pursuit. These methods work on a continuum in which, at one end, a turn at talk can be preserved as the main activity, while at the other end, the main activity becomes remedying the interactional trouble. These methods address different interactional relevancies having to do with 1) being a listener to a speaker, 2) being a recipient of a directive action, and 3) a basic obligation to comport oneself as at least minimally aware and responsive when targeted by the actions of co-present others.

Key Words: directives • emotion • gaze • non-verbal communication • police • repair

Discourse Studies, Vol. 8, No. 6, 745-770 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/1461445606069328
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