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Fear and Democracy

KEN HIRSCHKOP

in Mikhail Bakhtin: An Aesthetic for Democracy

The chapter states how the public square requires an element of boldness in terms of fear and democracy. In Bakhtin’s eyes political power does not thrust you onto the historical stage but merely ... More

The chapter states how the public square requires an element of boldness in terms of fear and democracy. In Bakhtin’s eyes political power does not thrust you onto the historical stage but merely allows you to make a fool of yourself. For a decade, Bakhtin distinguished between laughter and fear rather than monologism and dialogism. He focused on the tonality rather than the style of discourse. He wrote about the fear he himself experienced but in extremes. He disclosed a world constituting fear and not a specific fear. One can call it a phenomenological, philosophical, or anthropological fear. Bakhtin defended his concept of a historical culture in the wake of a history gone populist. He was willing to give the masses their history. However, he was afraid that it would devalue the language of rights. He dreamt of dialogues and spaces that were both unrealistic and utterly necessary.Less

“Confound Laughter with Seriousness”: The Protagoras as Monological Dialogue

in Socrates & the Fat Rabbis

One of the most startling moves in Plato is his constant insistence that dialogue is incompatible with, is the exact opposite of, rhetoric and debate. In order to understand Plato, then, some ... More

One of the most startling moves in Plato is his constant insistence that dialogue is incompatible with, is the exact opposite of, rhetoric and debate. In order to understand Plato, then, some distinctions have to be drawn between “dialogue,” “dialectic,” and “rhetoric/debate.” As shown recently by Edward Schiappa and David Timmerman, the verb dialegesthai and its related forms seem only to have meant to have a conversation until some time late in the fifth century BC. Marking their suggestion as “speculative,” Schiappa and Timmerman propose that at about that time or slightly later, the term began to take on a more specialized meaning as a term of art among the group of intellectuals who were only later dubbed Sophists, including Protagoras, Hippias, and Socrates. Plato is one of their major sources. Plato's dialogues are—at least on first reading—what Mikhail Bakhtin has called “monological dialogue.” but not only that. The very relationship between speakers in the dialogue is precisely that of an un/official monologism.Less

Introduction: Imagining the Monologic

Matt Tomlinson

in The Monologic Imagination

This introductory chapter presents the core argument running through the volume: that monologue and dialogue are projects that implicate each other. The introduction surveys Mikhail Bakhtin’s ... More

This introductory chapter presents the core argument running through the volume: that monologue and dialogue are projects that implicate each other. The introduction surveys Mikhail Bakhtin’s foundational writings on dialogism and heteroglossia, as well as his attention to monologism in the realms of epic and nationalist projects. It also examines monologue as a form of creative performance that both depends on erasure and attempts to unify speakers in a way that might be called the “repeat after me” phenomenon, with the implication that the only possible forms of uptake are either perfect assent or faithful repetition. In examining these dynamics, the introduction offers examples from China, Fiji, Samoa, and New Zealand before summarizing the chapters to come.Less

Cultural Replication: The Source of Monological and Dialogical Models of Culture

Greg Urban

in The Monologic Imagination

The (re)-production of an element or aspect of culture, here dubbed cultural “replication,” typically involves two distinguishable facets: copying and response. These two facets stimulate contrasting ... More

The (re)-production of an element or aspect of culture, here dubbed cultural “replication,” typically involves two distinguishable facets: copying and response. These two facets stimulate contrasting anthropological understandings of culture. Focusing on copying, older models look at culture through the lens of acquisition, viewing individuals within the group as sharing the same culture. The result is a monological understanding of culture; there is uniformity within the group, with group culture passed down across the generations. Newer models, in contrast, emphasize Bakhtinian dialogism, with culture construed as something to which people respond; these models, hence, emphasize difference. Additionally, it is not just anthropologists who develop monological and dialogical models of culture. This chapter argues that people generally, in their efforts to produce community or society, have recourse to metacultural models based on copying or on response. Those models in turn play an active role in promoting either uniformity or difference at the cultural plane.Less

Dialogic Prophecies and Monologic Vision

Jon Bialecki

in The Monologic Imagination

Depictions of how language and authority are arranged in Pentecostal and charismatic Christianity tend to be organized in one of two seemingly irreconcilable ways. While they may not use this exact ... More

Depictions of how language and authority are arranged in Pentecostal and charismatic Christianity tend to be organized in one of two seemingly irreconcilable ways. While they may not use this exact Bakhtinian language, they present this mode of religiosity as being organized either monologically or dialogically. Stranger still, the same author will present a monologic image at one moment, and a dialogic one the next. This chapter sees this tendency not as indecision or contradiction. Rather, this tendency points to the way that Pentecostal and charismatic Christianity can use monologic language to give rise to and sustain dialogical speech acts. This chapter reviews the text of a founding prophetic image reported by John Wimber, an early and influential leader of a Southern California charismatic evangelical movement called the Vineyard. It shows that this totalizing vision allows for a democratic vision of how inspired and prophetic speech functions in the Vineyard.Less

Monologue and Dialogism in Highland New Guinea Verbal Art

Alan Rumsey

in The Monologic Imagination

The term “dialogism” as used by Mikhail Bakhtin refers not to dialogue in the ordinary sense but to the intermingling of distinct social voices in given stretches of discourse. For Bakhtin, the novel ... More

The term “dialogism” as used by Mikhail Bakhtin refers not to dialogue in the ordinary sense but to the intermingling of distinct social voices in given stretches of discourse. For Bakhtin, the novel represented the pinnacle of development of such dialogism, whereas epic was the prototypical “monologic” genre. Here I compare what Bakhtin had to say in this respect with recent findings concerning epic-like genres of oral, sung narrative which are found across much of Highland Papua New Guinea. I show that the regional genres that are the most dialogic in the ordinary sense are the least dialogical in Bakhtin’s sense, and vice versa. Contrary to simplistic views of monologic “epic” as the canonical narrative genre in “oral cultures,” the three cases discussed here show how widely even oral genres which are similar in other ways can differ regarding the canonical forms of dialogism and monologism that one finds in them.Less

“With Unity We Will Be Victorious!”: A Monologic Poetics of Political “Conscientization” within the Cuban Revolution

Kristina Wirtz

in The Monologic Imagination

This chapter investigates the relationship between monologue and dialogue in Cuban revolutionary discourse. It proposes to attend to the “mono-logic”—the semiotic and ideological forces designed to ... More

This chapter investigates the relationship between monologue and dialogue in Cuban revolutionary discourse. It proposes to attend to the “mono-logic”—the semiotic and ideological forces designed to compel alignments toward unity, coherence, and continuity, that are, asymptotically, never quite reached. Cuba’s political leaders have for decades insisted that citizens undergo a continual process of conscientization in which inner selves and outer displays jointly cultivate commitment to revolutionary principles. There are two semiotic calibrations of such discourse: (1) the charismatic, in which heroic figures such as José Martí and Fidel Castro speak with overwhelming authority; and (2) the nomic, in which slogans on banners and in graffiti present universalized Truths voiced by no one and therefore, potentially, by everyone. Inevitably, heteroglossic criticism of the mono-logic surfaces in irony, parody, and even silence. The chapter argues that the monologic drive for unity across psyche, self, society, and history co-constitutes and reframes the dialogic.Less

From Neighborhood Talk to Talking for the Neighborhood

Zane Goebel

in The Monologic Imagination

This chapter looks at the relationship between dialogue and monologue and what this reveals about the emergence of local practices and ideologies about these practices. This chapter’s empirical focus ... More

This chapter looks at the relationship between dialogue and monologue and what this reveals about the emergence of local practices and ideologies about these practices. This chapter’s empirical focus is the talk that occurs in a regular monthly women’s meeting that occurred in one of Indonesia’s diverse urban neighborhoods in the mid-1990s. It shows how imitation of each other’s talk figures in the emergence of norms for social conduct in this neighborhood and ultimately a monologic neighborhood voice. In doing so, the chapter also points to how this interactional work relates to broader state ideologies about national and ethnic languages.Less

Monologue and Authority in Iran: Ethnic and Religious Heteroglossia in the Islamic Republic

James Barry

in The Monologic Imagination

This chapter analyzes political discourse among Iranians in Iran and California and argues that community- and national-level discourses can be seen as competing unitary languages—counterposed ... More

This chapter analyzes political discourse among Iranians in Iran and California and argues that community- and national-level discourses can be seen as competing unitary languages—counterposed monologues—that allow for heteroglossia only in limited ways. Beginning at the national level, it observes how official language about commitment to the Revolution, and Iran’s status as an Islamic republic, attempts to generate the centripetal force that will pull the nation together. At the community level, the chapter describes how leaders of the Armenian community craft unitary language to depict Armenians as people who speak a certain way, worship in a certain way (they are Christians), yet have displayed notable loyalty to the Iranian national ideal. The subject of ethnic groups is nettlesome for the country’s leaders. Nonetheless, the government attempts to enfold Armenians as loyal subjects by acknowledging their contributions to the Revolution and sacrifices during the 1980s war with Iraq.Less

Acting with One Voice: Producing Unanimism in Algerian Reformist Theater

Jane E. Goodman

in The Monologic Imagination

This chapter offers a critique of the well-worn claim that voluntary civic associations are inherently democratizing, modernizing forces. In 1930s‒1950s urban Algeria, unanimism—monological ... More

This chapter offers a critique of the well-worn claim that voluntary civic associations are inherently democratizing, modernizing forces. In 1930s‒1950s urban Algeria, unanimism—monological expression of unanimous group consensus in public rituals such as voting—was both what theater companies portrayed onstage and how they operated offstage. Contrary to theorists from Tocqueville to Habermas to Huntington, civic associations can have monological tendencies in which dialogism and plurality are downplayed. There are three possible sources of Algerian interest in public displays of unanimity. One is the Islamic reformist doctrine of tawḥīd, which holds that Muslims must unite in an emphatic return to principles of monotheism. Another is forms of practice found in traditional Berber village assemblies. The third is the machinations of the colonial state, which grouped all Algerians together as Muslims, “thus making Islam emerge as the single factor around which the indigenous population could unite.”Less

Creedal Monologism and Theological Articulation in the Mennonite Central Committee

Philip Fountain

in The Monologic Imagination

This chapter presents an ethnography of Christian theology. It does so by examining theological articulation in and through the creedal form. Creeds may be taken as an archetypal monologic mode of ... More

This chapter presents an ethnography of Christian theology. It does so by examining theological articulation in and through the creedal form. Creeds may be taken as an archetypal monologic mode of expression due to their monovocal presentation of standardized, non-debatable claims. Through close attention to how and why creeds are created it is possible to examination the contours and operations of the monological imagination. Drawing on fieldwork and archival research, this chapter explores the creedal articulation, as well as instances of disarticulation, within two North American Anabaptist service organizations, namely the Mennonite Central Committee and Christian Aid Ministries. Their differing strategies of theological articulation illuminate the uses and limits of monological discourse.Less

The Public Metaculture of Islamic Preaching

Julian Millie

in The Monologic Imagination

The chapter concerns the public culture of Islam in Indonesia. Drawing on field experience in West Java, it observes that Islamic oratory invariably includes repetitive and solemn elements, ... More

The chapter concerns the public culture of Islam in Indonesia. Drawing on field experience in West Java, it observes that Islamic oratory invariably includes repetitive and solemn elements, especially the citation and translation of Qur’an and Hadith. Yet preachers also rely on their abilities to move listeners with skillful multivocality, drawing on many genres and ways of speaking within listeners’ competency, not just religious ones. When speaking and writing normatively about oratory, however, Indonesians construct a monologic image that characterizes preaching as the circulation of religious knowledge, ignoring or even proscribing the multivocality and generic variation that ensures the continuation of that circulation. This chapter analyses the clash between preaching’s multivocal performances and its monologic metaculture against the background of public reverence for Islam, which disallows overt recognition of preaching skill. The monologic construction of preaching sustains the public aspiration that Islam be maintained as a sphere separated from worldly matters.Less

Discussion: The Monologic Imagination of Social Groups

Courtney Handman

in The Monologic Imagination

This chapter provides some analysis and discussion on the previous three chapters. These chapters have aimed to help develop an overall critique of the normalized sense of monologism's coercive force ... More

This chapter provides some analysis and discussion on the previous three chapters. These chapters have aimed to help develop an overall critique of the normalized sense of monologism's coercive force and heteroglossia's expressive power: monologues do not always oppress and dialogues do not always create the conditions for voices to be heard, this text argues. There are as many ways of constituting social groups as there are ways of imagining monologic communication.Less

Conclusion: Religious and Political Terrain of the Monologic Imagination

Matt Tomlinson and Julian Millie

in The Monologic Imagination

The book concludes by arguing that religious and political discourse is often characterized by the naturalization of monologue. In such discourse, monologism is treated as natural and dialogism ... More

The book concludes by arguing that religious and political discourse is often characterized by the naturalization of monologue. In such discourse, monologism is treated as natural and dialogism becomes the project that requires the most effort—the emergent, fragile attempt that can never fully succeed. It offers examples from sources as diverse as John Wesley’s advice for preaching, Kim Jong-il’s lethal efforts to make all North Koreans speak in a single voice, a wistful Papua New Guinea man’s claim that in the old days people did not speak so much, and an Australian archbishop’s puzzling declaration that dialogue does not require a willingness to compromise.Less

The Impossible

Vlad P. Glăveanu

in The Possible: A Sociocultural Theory

This final chapter addresses the question of what might be the opposite of the possible. The impossible emerges as a likely candidate, but a closer inspection of this notion reveals the fact that we ... More

This final chapter addresses the question of what might be the opposite of the possible. The impossible emerges as a likely candidate, but a closer inspection of this notion reveals the fact that we can and do develop perspectives on what we consider impossible. As such, a distinction needs to be made between what is impossible to think about (the unthinkable) and what is impossible to do (the undoable). The former, rather than the latter, marks the absolute absence of possibility. However, in line with the sociocultural theory put forward in the book, the chapter proposes the notion of the “non-possible” as a more appropriate counterpart of the possible and describes it as the imposition of singular, hegemonic perspectives that do not recognize difference or allow dialogues to emerge. Some final thoughts about how spaces of possibility can be cultivated are offered toward the end of the chapter.Less