Celebrating the Other : A Dialogic Account of Human Nature

T he title, Celebrating the Other, is based on Clark and Holquist's (1984) reference to Mikhail Bakhtin's dialogic theory as a celebration of alterity. Like Bakhtin's work, mine is designed to provide a long overdue celebration of the other. For too long our major cultural and scientific views have been monologic and self celebratory - focusing more on the leading protagonist and the supporting cast that he has assembled for his performances than on others as viable people in their own right. Time now to celebrate the other - not only to set the record of our understanding straight but, of equal importance, to give voice, and in their own register and form, to those who have been condemned to silence.