Wareing's social power - the power that someone has in a social circle. This can be influenced by many factors such as age and gender.
The quote, "that's nice (.) that's great (.) for you" is an example of Wareing's social power. There are many ways to gain social power within and group and one of them is through the use of comedy. By controlling the jokes in a room it allows someone to seem humorous to their social group and thus would become the centre of attention as the group would seek out entertainment. In the context of this quote it is within a group of friends, it can be assumed that they have been friends for a long time as the type of humour used was sarcasm. Sarcasm has a undertone of belittling towards a person, lowering their power to boost your own. Within a group of friends being sarcastic with one another and belittling is normal as the friends will know that they are joking and only using it as a humour technique. It is shown that this persons humour was successful and they gained attention from it due to the laugh that followed.
Good analysis of the context - some closer analysis of the techniques that create sarcasm needed (mine the quote). Wareing's social power idea is not about the social power you gain, actually, although that is a great area of focus for analysis; the term refers to the power you have because of the social group you are in e.g. in Britain it really helps if you are a white, middle-class male (jobs for the boys etc.). In the USA, there would be prestige from belonging to different social groups - can you give an example?
ReplyDeleteGood quote and description of the theory.
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