Constructing others and dialoguewith them in the course of publiceducational meetings

Abstract

The study explores public educational meetings that aim to promote the Belarusian language and culture. In the course of the meetings, those who do not have the same values and are not present during meetings are brought up into a conversation. In other words, the voice of the others who are not part of the community gets involved in the dialogue. Besides, some of the invited guests do not speak Belarusian and part of the audience is not necessarily interested in learning Belarusian but rather attends these meetings to meet with those guests. In this respect, the study explores the interactional resources the hosts and the attendees use to construct the dialogue with the other in their absence and in their presence. It investigates who is considered to be the other and how the other is discursively constructed.