Beyond texts in context: Recontextualization and the co-production of texts and contexts in the legal discourse, excited utterance exception to hearsay

Abstract

The excited utterance exception to hearsay from the US Federal Rules of Evidence (US Courts, 2006: Section 8) is a special kind of reported speech — the repetition of an utterance that reports an event, made prior to the courtroom interaction, in response to exciting circumstances, to a passive third party. This reported speech and the rules that govern it provide insight into the discursive relationship between text and context. This article uses the excited utterance exception to develop a theory of recontextualization, building on research that shows that texts do not merely constitute contexts, nor do contexts neatly hold and inform the texts embedded in them. Contexts are complex and subjective matrices made up of utterances, texts, actions and events, and these matrices are themselves open to recontextualization. This analysis shows that legal discourse simplifies and constrains both texts and contexts, and positions them causally in the recursive and simultaneous processes of entextualization and recontextualization.