Everyday Creativity is Always Dialogical in Bakhtin’s Sense
Traditional definitions of language have often categorised creative activity in the ‘canonical’ literary uses we see in artistic works. However, contemporary definitions no longer confine creativity with language to the work of the novelist or poet. It is a well argued point that the seeds of such literary language reside in what may be described, as the mundane, practical uses of ‘everyday’ talk and writing. This shift in opinion and approach to language study may be largely attributed to the work of Mikhail Bakhtin, who developed a social theory of language. Bakhtin’s main argument was that there should not be a special category in which to place literary language, as different and superior to the everyday, but that “literature was just one set of genres out of the wide range of different speech genres within social life” (Maybin, 2006, p.418). Bakhtin’s concern was not with the formal properties of language alone, but also in the recognition of the many genres of language, how it works and how it is affected by social, cultural and historical factors. (2006)
It is Bakhtin’s arguments, in relation to ‘everyday’ creativity that I shall consider here, focusing particularly on a key concept of his theory: ‘dialogism’. In this essay, I intend to argue that the nature of everyday creativity in language use is always dialogical. I will highlight examples from the work of others that support Bakhtinian concepts, in addition, I will contrast the inherency approach of Roman Jakobson and his notion of the poetic function of language with the more sociohistorical approach of Bakhtin.
Bakhtin’s theory of dialogism has significantly influenced the study of language and several other disciplines.
“[…] Dialogism is the idea that culture, or even existence[…], is inherently responsive,[…] involving individuals acting at a particular point in time […] in reaction to what has gone before and in expectation of what is to follow.” (http://homepages.nyu.edu/~klc1/)
In terms of language, dialogism describes the way all uses of language, spoken and written, are in some way a response to previous uses, whilst at the same time always addressed to an ‘audience’ in anticipation of its’ own response. (2006) A related concept is heteroglossia, for Bakhtin language consists of many voices, any word or phrase will always carry connotations from previous use in various social contexts as well as “a taste of previous speakers’ intentions.
Amy Tan talks of the English she grew up with. Tan describes an English her mother uses and an English she shares with her husband. Tan sprinkles in the emotional intricacies of a personalized language that is burdened by misconceptions and apprehensively describes this language as “broken,” but expression through the use of a “broken language doesn’t invalidate what is being said, it doesn’t devoid passion, intention or imagination it simply differs from a normality. Envisage expression as ubiquitous. The differences rest in the vessels used to express. Here, I am using the English language, a grandiose entangling of words and a structured system, to indite my thoughts.
Lowe, Peter J. Texas Studies in Literature & Language; Spring2007, Vol. 49 Issue 1, p21-44, 24p Academic Search Complete Ebesco. Web. 23 July 2011
Bataille suggests the use of cultural theory to attack and analyse language. Therefore, the characteristic theme
It is noteworthy to be stated clearly at the outset of the present paper that literary theories are composed of a mere plethora of highly debatable ideas, concepts and assumptions. They are in other words, strikingly vague, opaque and of a typical flexibility. According to Wellek and Warren (1966, p. 30) }there are then, not only one or two but literally hundreds of independent, diverse, and mutually exclusive conceptions of literature, each of which is in some way right~. That is, the diversity of literary theories and even the contradiction between them sometimes, is something natural.
Bakhtin's definition points toward a parallel between issues of knowledge and power among the characters and those between the author and the reader. In both cases, knowledge is best thought of as dialogic rather than monologic, as open to the other rather than closed, as addres...
Trudgill, P. (2003). A glossary of sociolinguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Retrieved April 27, 2014.
Russian critic Mikhail Bakhtin is one of the pioneers that referred to hybridity within the framework of linguistics, literature and stylistics. In his book The Dialogic Imagination first published in 1981, Bakhtin (2011) mentions two types of hybrid constructions: ‘unconscious’ and ‘conscious’ hybridization. Unconscious hybridization refers to the unintentional mixture of different languages that are
The Neo-Wittgensteinian theory of Art has been modeled mainly after the ideologies and teachings of Ludwig Wittgenstein, a philosopher and logician from Austria. Much of his work focuses on the validity of the use of language, which is applied to the argument I made in this paper. His language-games theory of “private language” can extend its argument to the study of aesthetics (“Individual Philosopher Philosophy”).
Bakhtin, Mikhail. Epic and Novel: Toward a Methodology for the Study of the Novel. The
Dialogue is more than talking. It is not the straightforwardness of talking to or at, rather it is communicating with or between. It is "a relation between persons that is characterized in more or less degree by the element of inclusion" (Buber, 97). Inclusiveness is an acknowledgment of the other person, an event experienced between two persons, mutual respect for both views and a willingness to listen to the views of the other. These elements are the heart of dialogical relations. In this paper I will examine Martin Buber’s theory of communication, its relevance to my life and the critiques of the theory.
Language, according to Owens (2012, p. 6), “can be defined as a socially shared code or conventional system for representing concepts through the use of arbitrary symbols and rule-governed combinations of those symbols”. Language is thought to be a complex system; however, it can be broken down into three different components. These three components consist of content, form, and use. Within these three components, language has five main components which includes semantics, morphology, phonology, syntax, and pragmatics (Owens, 2012, p. 18).
“Poets love words; fiction writers love sentences” (Hardin). In this particular writing, I discovered myself admiring both. “Watched” becam...
Language is a means of human communication whether verbally or nonverbally. In everyday life we use language to express our thoughts, feelings ,attitudes,etc.A great amount of social interactions takes place every day over the telephone ,by online chats, face –to face interaction or at workplaces .We use language of different forms for different functions as in to inform, question , and sometimes to strengthen social relationships or just to keep the social wheels turning smoothly. Moreover, understanding one's own language and even other cultures’ language is important to arrive at a successful and effective communication with others . The study of language can be undertaken in various ways .Semantics and pragmatics are two branches of linguistics which are concerned with the study of meaning.
The New Critics, just like Wimsatt and Beardsley put forward in their essay, also believed in the ‘organicity’ of the text. In the essay, they write, “A poem should not mean but be.” And, since the meaning of the poem or the text is the medium through which it can exist, and words, in turn, is the medium through which the meaning is expressed, the poem or the text b...
Shea, Renee, Lawrence Scanlon, and Robin Scanlon. The Language of Composition: Reading, Writing, Rhetoric. 2nd ed. Boston: Bedford St. Martins, 2013. 525-529,546-551. Print.