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In:Disability in Dialogue
Edited by Jessica M.F. Hughes and Mariaelena Bartesaghi
[Dialogue Studies 33] 2023
► pp. 34–48

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The autistic dialogue

A Bakhtinian framework for singular voices

 | University of CaliforniaBerkeley
 | Università degli Studi di Bergamo
 | Università degli Studi di Bergamo
Published online: 19 September 2023
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https://doi.org/10.1075/ds.33.02ste
Abstract
From his early texts on language, consciousness, and ideology, to his later contributions to literary criticism, Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory centers speech in the dynamics of communicative exchanges. This chapter considers how Bakhtinian notions such as dialogue, double-voicing, and heteroglossia offer significant analytic purchase for understanding autistic phenomena, notably autistic language and autistic semiosis more broadly, what we refer to as autistic voice. By way of empirical demonstration, the authors examine everyday verbal exchanges between autistic children, their family members, and tutors in home contexts. These verbal exchanges were video recorded, transcribed and analyzed employing an integrated methodology, which combines linguistic, discourse, and acoustic analyses, highlighting the dialogues’ simultaneous singularity and multiplicity. Our examination yields an understanding of the autistic voice as inherently polyphonic, oriented to dialogue and creativity.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The challenges of defining autistic voice
  • 3.Rethinking autism within the social model of disability
  • 4.A Bakhtinian framework
    • 4.1Dialogue as essential attribute of language
    • 4.2Double voiced discourse
    • 4.3Heteroglossia: Centrifugal and centripetal forces in language
  • 5.Analyzing autistic language with Bakhtin
    • 5.1Echolalia as joint production in dialogic exchanges
    • 5.2Echolalia as revoicing
  • 6.Conclusion: The emergence of the autistic voice
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
References (34)
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