Bakhtinian Perspectives for the Study of Intercultural Communication

Abstract

The main focus of intercultural communication has been on providing a framework for understanding communication between people from different cultural backgrounds. Drawing upon functionalism, positivism, quantitative empiricism, and behaviorism in psychology, sociology, and political science, the majority of intercultural research has produced some scientific data about the interactions and traits among different cultures. This essay suggests Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin's concepts including creative understanding as an alternative strategy for the study of intercultural communication. His emphasis on a boundless context that constantly interacts with and modifies the text helps us avoid formalist insistence on the autonomous art object. His emphasis on the situated utterance and the interpersonal generation of meaning avoids the static ahistoricism of an apolitical value-free semiotics.