Relational Dialectics

The Utterance Chain

Central to RDT is Bakhtin's concept of the utterance chain. According to Bakhtin, communication consists of messages that link to other messages like a series of chains, a concept others refer to as intertextuality. Sites of potential struggle occur when the chain of utterances reveals a clash of meaning. Four different sites of potential discursive struggle are common: the distal already-spoken, the proximal already-spoken, the proximal not-yet-spoken, and the distal not-yet-spoken. These struggles are between systems of meaning, not between persons. Thus, discursive struggle is not synonymous with interpersonal conflict, which is a clash between people.

The distal already-spoken is the site of struggle where people in a relationship bump up against culture. According to Bakhtin, culture is not a unitary system of beliefs, but a hotly contested process in which meanings are wrought in the moment of struggle for dominance. RDT-oriented research has identified several cultural discourses affecting relationships such as individualism, community, romance, rationality, the right to silence, and the right to speak one's mind. In the discursive struggle of individualism and community, relationship parties grapple with issues of partner autonomy versus relational connection. In the discursive struggle of the right to silence and the right to speak, relationship parties negotiate issues of openness and closedness. In the discursive struggle of romance and rationality, relationship parties negotiate issues of affection and working on goals as well as issues related to pleasing oneself versus pleasing one's partner. Clearly, the cultural discourses that are brought into the interactions between relating parties will vary from one culture to another, but the discursive site of the distal already-spoken underscores that relating is immersed in culture, which in turn is reproduced or produced anew as relating unfolds.

...