Eh cazzo! Adesso basta. Embodied and linguistic resources for managing anger in business meetings

Through Multimodal Conversation Analysis, we analyse the expression, management and co-construction of anger in institutional settings, taking as an entry point the linguistic and embodied resources mobilised by participants in interaction. The expression of anger does not only pertain to the individual’s inner and psychological-cognitive sphere: it is part of processes which are externalised and visibly co-constructed on the basis of the interactional contingencies of everyday conversations. Displaying anger in a
business meeting setting has a purpose for the participants: obtaining a directive-compliant response to an urgent instruction. We show that anger is a multimodal package, made up of specific, visible and intelligible resources, e6ective for the execution of social actions. The expression of emotions emerges as an inter-actional and co-constructed process, aimed at achieving intersubjectivity, i.e., a shared understanding among the participants.