Dialogue and body history. Dialogical perspectives on „disability“

Abstract

The paper inquires the dialogicality of the body. In particular, it explores the value of a dialogical perspective for disability studies. Within psychology, dialogical perspectives have received much attention in the field of so-called dialogical self studies. Dialogical self theory, however, lacks a coherent conceptualization of human embodied existence. Mikhail Bakhtin’s body-historical analysis of the medieval »grotesque body« provides a more fruitful starting point for the interrelation of body and dialogue for the »grotesque body« is a fundamentally dialogical body. According to Bachtin, Western modernity also a history of increasing monologization and »closure« of the body. This history can be told as a history of the »monstrous body.« By engaging with (feminist) disability studies, the paper finally explores the contemporary value of a dialogical perspective for people whose bodies do not comply with dominant monological norms of the body. It is proposed that the promise of a dialogical perspective lies in the combination of an ethical stance with the deconstruction of ontological differences between people with »ordinary« and people with »extraordinary bodies.«