Vagrant Voices: Summary, Citation, Authority

Technostyle [Discourse and Writing/Rédactologie] 17 (1):87-203 (2001)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Describing student views of summary as anxious, and also incompatible with scholarly practice, this paper explores possibilities for addressing such views by developing theories of summary as citation. It begins by reviewing Teun van Dijk's "macrostructural" theory as a cognitive explanation for summary, and finds that, even with the addition of new-rhetorical genre theory to introduce social context to cognitive activities, a deficit persists in accounting for summary. Greg Myers' study of reported speech begins to speak to the deficit by showing conversationalists citing others to position themselves. Judith Butler's argument for linguistic agency is then called on to demonstrate the inherent instability in citation and the risk of change involved in all reiteration—these amounting to democratic "possibility." Mikhail Bakhtin's "revolutionary" philosophy of language then contributes perspectives on repetition of others' words which locate summary at the threshold of subjectivity. The paper concludes by describing summary as rendering positions in the social order, and attitudes towards summary as indications of ideologies of language itself.

Analytics

Added to PP
2025-02-07

Downloads
51 (#105,808)

6 months
51 (#101,000)

Historical graph of downloads since first upload
This graph includes both downloads from PhilArchive and clicks on external links on PhilPapers.
How can I increase my downloads?