“Then I Learned about Positive Thinking”: The Genre Structuring of Narratives of Self‐Transformation

This article brings together research on genre and the self to investigate personal narrative as a “technology of the self” (Foucault ) in the context of a Japanese public speaking course. In theTokyo Speech Center, the goal of learning to give effective speeches is used as a method for transforming selves, culminating in narratives that position the speaker as someone who has made positive changes, whether in communication skills or interpersonal relationships. In narrating how they were changed by taking the course, speakers display an “enterprising self” (Rose ), demonstrating agency, self‐management, and reflexivity.