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Volume 10   Number 2     Fall 2017

Doing History By Telling Stories: A Dialogical Proposal

João Salgado
ISMAI – University Institute of Maia and
CPUP – Center of Psychology at University of Porto, Portugal


pp. 185-192
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Abstract. The combination of social representation theory and the dialogical perspective has been pursued as a desirable goal by different scholars. Drawing upon Moreau’s (2017) text “Understanding temporalization by the activity of historical thinking,” a dialogical perspective is proposed, which assumes the notion of position as the basic unit of analysis. From this standpoint, a position has a triadic structure, in which it is possible to distinguish an agent, audiences and socially represented objects. This creates a double directedness to every deed: a position is always addressed to objects, but also to present or absent audiences. This demands the distinction of two interrelated dimensions: the narrated event and the interactional storytelling event. Besides, a position is always an evaluative stance, which also calls for the consideration of affective and motivational aspects. The complexity of the dialogical relations within a specific position is illustrated with the example of Truman’s speech justifying the American military intervention that led to the Korean War

 

Keywords: dialogical self theory, social representation theory, narratives