DIALOGISM

1. THE DIALOGIC WAY-FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE DIALOGISM

2. Questions to be discussed on the way • Who was Bakhtin?-(intro-, interests and uptakes) • What was his Linguistic Philosophy? • Bakhtinian theory of Dialogism and Monologism??? • What is Polyphony; How is it linked with the theory of Dialogism?? • Some other concepts: Hetroglossia; Chronotope • What impact does Bakhtin’s concepts have on human communication?? • What are its social and cultural implications? • What are its current implications-Critical Dialogism?? • Queries, Research ex., conclusion, thanks, and references

3. Intro-logue

4. MIKHAIL MIKHAILOVICH BAKHTIN (1895-1975) • Russian philosopher, philologist, literary and discourse theorist, a communication scholar • Had troubles with soviet regime, got exiled due to his political conflicts • Worked under Stalinism; was a controversial figure : faced internal exile, refused his doctorate, and endured disability • His ideas were not available for translation into English until the late 1970s • Some of his work has been lost, most of it published years after his death

5. About Bakhtin • Not exactly a Marxist but sometimes associated with Russian Formalism • Bakhtin is a system-builder, not in the sense of methodological closure • Rather his system consists of open-ended connections and refuses to view issues in isolation • Seeks to conceptualize general tendencies • Continues Vygotsky’s ideas 'all that is internal in the higher mental functions was at one time external. . . . . . the internalisation of language as a social tool for thinking’ (Vygotsky, 1991: p36).

6. Bakhtin: Interests and Uptakes • Bakhtindeveloped an innovative and dynamic perception of language and meaning • His greatest works involved studies of the ‘novel’ concepts of hetroglossia and polyphony • Developed theory of dialogues – DIALOGISM “everything is a dialogue” • Critic of de Saussure semiotics • Operates somewhere between a structural and Constructivist approach • His works include detailed typologies of discourses classified according to their structures and constructions

7. Bakhtin’s Linguistic Philosophy Lingua-Logue

8. Bakhtin’s Linguistic Philosophy • Language is not an abstract entity but is always material: how people USE language • Both structurally and in terms of its content it’s always ideological-an idea is a live event, a word too is a live event • Language in any form spoken or written is always DIALOGIC • Nature of discourse-Slavic Studies, but it is not about language as a self-contained conceptual system found in traditional linguistics

9. The “turn” to a social view of language Social view of language Language-as-system

10. The structuralist dichotomy of language Parole ( Use, performance ) Language: Langue ( System, competence)

11. Dialogism challenges structuralism • Bakhtin criticized Saussure's synchronic approach and his emphasis on internal relations within the system of language. • Bakhtin reversed the Saussurean priority of langue over parole: The meaning of a sign is not in its relationship to other signs within the language system but rather in the social context of its use. • ”The social dimensions of semiotic systems are so intrinsic to their nature and function that the systems cannot be studied in isolation” (Hodge & Kress: 1988)

12. Slavo-the Utterance or Word • Any singular view of language fails to account for what Bakhtin called ‘living utterances’: active, creative, and evaluative in the nature of their meanings • Social subjectivity- relationship between language and our consciousness- our sense of self is social, not natural or innate • “No utterance in general can be attributed to the speaker exclusively; it is the product of the interaction of the interlocutors, and broadly speaking, the product of the whole complex social situation in which it has occurred”. (Bakhtin,1976:118)

13. Bakhtin: Creative Capacity of Language • Evaluative nature of discourse makes context absolutely essential • Things don’t exist “in themselves” but only in their relations Example: “That’s a fine view” • has many potential or possible meanings, but only as uttered in a particular context can we know which meanings are being realised • Can you think of its implication in our socio-cultural context??

14. BakhtiniandialogismDia-Logue

15. Questions??? • Dialogue??? -Traditional/Classical view • Dialogism???-Reemerging of a new cultural critique • The Bakhtian journey from dialogue to dialogism???- A new philosophy or a metaphor with a hidden agenda

16. Diaologism • We are always in dialogue, not only with other people but also with everything in the world: this makes it Universal Phenomenon • Everything “addresses” us in a certain sense uniquely with reference to our particular place in the world as we can see our “exterior” only through others’ perspectives • Baktin stresses upon the dialogic relations between people, texts, and betwen people and cultures. • All use of language and symbols have an ultimately dialogical aim; even monologism is a corruption of an underlying dialogism

17. Salient Features of Dialogism • The notion of dialogicality is inherent in every utterance or speech act-it’s an EVENT • Is unfinalizable and multitudinal in principle • Contains polyphony which is dialogue through and through • Internal dialogicality-intimately linked with the internal voice of the other • The opposition within a dialogue may resolve into symphonia or diaphonia but never finalalizes • Distancicality or sphere of autonomy of the voice is preserved • It’s always HERE and NOW-Unfinalizable yet complete at every moment

18. Think about it for a moment? • Any Bell---------- Ringing??? • Maybe The Great PLATO comes in your mind!!!! The Socratic Dialogues • Differences OR Similarities ???

21. The Dialogic Principle • Meaning ‘is like an electric spark that occurs only when two different terminals are hooked together’ (Volosinov).

22. Dialogic Impact • Wertsch ‘when a speaker produces an utterance at least two voices can be heard simultaneously’ (Wertsch, 1991, p13). • Bakhtin: ‘There is neither a first nor a last word and there are no limits to the dialogic context …Even past meanings … can never be stable’ (Speech Genres, p 170) • Examples: • Can you think of the journey the following word have made so far? • WIDOW; MAGAZINE; PAKISTANI IDOL

23. Dialogism vs. Monologism • Monologism refers to a single-thought discourse characteristic of traditional writing • One transcendental perspective or consciousness dominates all the significant ideologies, values, and desires making them superfluous or irrelevant • It reduces “another/other consciousness” to the status of objects, thus closing down the world it represents by feigning it to be “the ultimate word” • Qualitative difference is rendered quantitative, performing a kind of discursive “death” of the other • A monological word “gravitates towards itself and its referential objects”

24. Dialogism vs. monologism - cont • Monologism • Close System • Single meaning • Rules • Fixed • Authoritative • Dominant • One perspective • Individualism • Reduction of identity • Ex: Tolstoy • Dialogism • Discourse/s • Practice • Multiple voices • Communication • Use • presupposes difference • play of perspectives • unlimited creativity • Individual space • Ex: Dostoeyvisky

25. Philosophical note: Why this is dialogic and not dialectic Hegel’s dialectic begins with the Whole and moves through differences to a more complex and internally integrated notion (the Absolute Notion). Hence identity is assumed and we are dealing with difference within identity. Dialectical conflicts end in synthesis - teleological Bakhtin’s Dialogic begins with difference and never escapes difference. The system is unbounded – there is no Being - only difference

26. Polyphony • In Problems of Dostoevsky’s poetics, Bakhtin developed the concept of “Polyphony” • Literally means multiple voices • Bakhtin considered Dostoevsky’s work as containing many distinct different voices-plural consciousness, unmerged into any singularity, nor submerged into the voice of the author • The reader encounters not a single authorial reality but how reality appears to each character • The author no longer monopolizes the power to mean or present distinct perspectives/ideologies

27. Polyphony and Dialogism • Simultaneously present, consecutively uttered, plural, unmerged voices and consciousnesses, freely representing their worlds respectively • Neither reducible nor isolated • Structure of Polyphony Independent voice-unfinalizable Dialogue itself