The Dialogue of Marriage

Abstract

This article, framed in relational dialectics theory, argues for dialogic creativity as an alternative to extant companionate and institutional conceptualizations of marital quality. Dialogic creativity—dialogue—forecloses monologic calcification of meaning in marriage, including the evaluative judgment of what constitutes marital quality, through the ongoing interplay of competing discourses. Four potential discursive sites are discussed through the Bakhtinian concept of the utterance chain as a way to frame the kinds of discursive struggles that are prevalent in marriage; two of these discursive sites capture struggles among sociocultural discourses, and two capture struggles among idiosyncratic systems of meaning that reflect the unique history of a given marriage and the unique pattern of similarities and differences between partners in a given marriage. Dialogic creativity is enacted communicatively through three forms of dialogic expansion: diachronic separation, synchronic interplay, and hybrid and aesthetic‐moment enactments. The three kinds of communicative practices are contrasted with dialogically contractive monologue, in which a single monolithic discourse silences all competing discourses in the struggle of meaning.

Theorizing the Decision‐Making Process for Divorce or Reconciliation

“…The broad theoretical frameworks used to frame decision‐making processes in many of these substantive areas often included social exchange theory (Donnelly & Burgess, ), rational choice theory (Shu, Zhu, & Zang, 2012), resource theory (Szinovacz & Davey, ), bargaining models (Abraham, Ausburg, & Hinz, ), or the theory of utility maximization (Shu et al, ), although more interpretive frameworks—including symbolic interactionism (Garrett‐Peters & Burton, ), dialogical theory (Bell et al, ), and relational dialectic theory (Baxter, )—have also been used to understand decision making.…”

“…Some family scholars have chosen to examine general decision-making processes within a more social constructionist or interpretive theoretical framework. Helpful approaches include dialogical theory (Bell et al, 2014), relational dialectic theory (Baxter, 2010), and symbolic interactionism (Garrett-Peters & Burton, 2015). The main assumption of dialogism is that sense making is dynamic.…”

“…Relational dialectic theory is similar to dialogism in that it focuses on relationship processes, the mutuality and individuality of meaning construction in relationships, the dialectical tensions in meanings, and the interchange between meanings and the larger context. It highlights a decision‐making process driven by multiple individuals (e.g., partners, religious and family groups, siblings, possible affair partners) in active collaboration and communication with one another, in an attempt to create an understanding of the situation by incorporating multiple, potentially conflicting points of view (Baxter, ). Important within any dialogical or dialectical examination of decision making is positioning (Davies & Harré, ).…”

“…Honeycutt () found these scripts to be helpful in organizing the chaotic experience of marital dissolution in a way that conforms to societal beliefs and expectations. But he also argued that the reports given to researchers about marriage may tell less about the process of dissolution and more about how participants processed the event according to accepted, socially scripted means of sense making inflected with already‐spoken traces of the broader cultural narrative of marriage (Baxter ; Honeycutt, ).…”

Discursive Struggles Animating Individuals’ Talk About Their Parents’ Coming Out as Lesbian or Gay

“…That is, it gets pushed to the margins and is considered as non-normative, unnatural, or deviant (Baxter, 2011). Baxter (2010) argued, -the interests of social groups or individuals are differentially served dependent on which discourses are centered, but such power derives from dominant discourses‖ (p. 372). It is then through the interplay (i.e., power struggle) of various discourses that meaning is made.…”