The Dialogic Nature Of Discourse

The present dissertation intends to discuss the dialogic nature of discourse from the perspective of the relation between Bakhtin's philosophy of dialogue and his theory of discourse. The author chooses this topic primarily on the understanding of three aspects of the issue as follows: (1) No systematic and substantial research as regards Bakhtin's theories of "discourse" and its dialogic nature has been done so far both at home and abroad. (2) A central issue of great importance in Bakhtin's theory of discourse remains unsolved, which can be summarized as this: the vitality of language lies in discourse; the vitality of discourse lies in its value which is realized in dialogues, and dialogues permeate through cultural activities. It is through this complex string of factors that the dialogic nature is best manifested. (3) By revealing the universal dialogic nature of discourse, we might shed some new light on our understanding of Bakhtin's dialogism and provide some new perspective for the study of literary narrative techniques and expressiveness of discourse in humane studies. This is a trans-disciplinary study of philosophy of discourse. With a comprehensive survey of the process of Bakhtin's evolving conception about dialogue, the dissertation explores the relationship between discourse and dialogue while elucidating analytically both the position of discourse theory in Bakhtin's overall theoretical system and the fundamentals pertaining to the dialogic nature and discourse forms. Centrally concerned to prove the essential universal significance embedded in the dialogic nature, it expounds the spirit of humanism underlying discourse theory. The dissertation also clarifies, through sample analysis in terms of literary narration, the implied author's response, genre and tone, some ambiguous academic interpretations respecting both dialogue theory / polyphonic theory and dialogic nature / double-voiced discourse.