The emergence of the language of desire toward nonviolent relationships during the dialogic literary gatherings

Abstract

The dialogic nature of human beings has widely been argued in the scientific literature. Language, as a cultural and psychological tool, has the potential to construct social meanings, including those related to love, attraction and desire. In these emotional dimensions of the self, people use ‘the language of desire’, defined as the capacity of language to raise attraction and be desired, while the ‘language of ethics’ is used to describe what is ‘good’ and ‘ethical’. This article examines a dialogic intervention with 11–13-year-old children named Dialogic Literary Gatherings and explores its affordances to articulate both forms of language toward nonviolent models. 28 sessions from two elementary schools were analyzed, along with three focus groups with students. Main findings outline that dialogic features enable the emergence of the language of desire in combination to the language of ethics toward nonviolent relationships.