Poverty: Talk, Identity, and Action

This is a study of poverty as it is constructed in the talk of 11 guests who regularly eat at a soup kitchen in upstate New York. Framed within the perspective that talk constitutes identity and action, this study offers a critical interpretation of how the soup kitchen guests present themselves and the other impoverished guests of the kitchen. The essay also evaluates their characterizations in terms of how they may reflect or influence society's views and policies on poverty. The interpretation and evaluation are guided by the concept "relevancy in meaning" as it is being developed in interpretive audience studies.