What happens when people communicate or dialogue with each other? This is the daunting question that this book proposes to address by starting from a controversial hypothesis: What if human interactants were not the only ones to be considered, paraphrasing Austin (1962), as “doing things with words”? That is, what if other “things” could also be granted the status of agents in a dialogical situation? Action and Agency in Dialogue: Passion, incarnation, and ventriloquism proposes to explore this unique hypothesis by mobilizing metaphorically the notion of ventriloquism. According to this ventriloqual perspective, interactions are never purely local, but dislocal, that is, they constantly mobilize figures (collectives, principles, values, emotions, etc.) that incarnate themselves in people’s discussions. This highly original book, which develops the analytical, practical and ethical dimensions of such a theoretical positioning, may be of interest to communication scholars, linguists, sociologists, conversation analysts, management and organizational scholars, as well as philosophers interested in language, action and ethics.
Author(s): Prof. Dr. François Cooren
Year: 2010
Language: English
Pages: 222
Action and Agency in Dialogue......Page 2
Editorial page......Page 3
Title page......Page 4
LCC data......Page 5
Dedication page......Page 6
Table of contents......Page 8
Acknowledgments......Page 10
Foreword......Page 14
Introduction......Page 18
Organization of the book......Page 25
Part I. Agency, texts, and passion......Page 30
1. For a renewed conception of action......Page 32
1.1 Action: What’s in a name?......Page 33
1.2 A little detour through science studies......Page 37
1.3 Toward a new philosophy of action?......Page 39
2. How texts (and other things) do things with words......Page 44
2.1 Textual agency......Page 45
2.2 Con-textual agency......Page 49
2.3 Autonomy and intentionality......Page 55
2.4 Conventionality, literality, and figurativity......Page 60
2.5 The functioning of texts......Page 66
3. Passion, animation, and decision......Page 74
3.1 Passion, animation, and attachment......Page 75
3.2 Passion, animation, and reason......Page 79
3.3 Animation, decision, and undecidability......Page 81
3.4 Animation as a form of staging......Page 83
3.5 Animation, power, and authority......Page 89
3.6 Partial conclusion......Page 94
Part II. Ventriloquism and incarnation......Page 100
4.1 Making someone or something speak......Page 102
4.2 Downstream forms of ventriloquism......Page 106
4.3 Upstream forms of ventriloquism......Page 122
4.4 Cultivating figures......Page 129
4.5 Conclusion......Page 151
5. Incarnation......Page 158
5.1 Incarnation: What’s in a name?......Page 159
5.2 Collectives’ mode of being......Page 167
5.3 Systems and systematicity......Page 177
5.4 A plea for reification......Page 182
Conclusion......Page 186
References......Page 192
Author index......Page 210
Subject index......Page 214
The series Dialogue Studies......Page 224
