Dialogic - endless redescriptions of the world

storytelling — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 23:52:56 -0600

The terms dialogic and dialogism often refer to the concept used by Mikhail Bakhtin in his work The Dialogic Imagination. The dialogic work carries on a continual dialogue with other works of literature and other authors. It does not merely answer, correct, silence, or extend a previous work, but informs and is continually informed by the previous work. Dialogic literature is in communication with multiple works. This is not merely a matter of influence, for the dialogue extends in both directions, and the previous work of literature is as altered by the dialogue as the present one is.
Bakhtin argues that all language (and all thought) appears dialogic. This means that: everything anybody ever says always exists in response to things that have been said before and in anticipation of things that will be said in response. We never, in other words, speak in a vacuum. As a result, all language (and the ideas which language contains and communicates) is dynamic, relational and engaged in a process of endless redescriptions of the world.

"Good morning, how are you? Very well thank you, and you? Fine thank you!" is a typical example of a dialogic pattern. What often -repeated, but meaningless dialogic patterns do you use in your thinking and conversation?

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