The Intersubjective Ethics of Dialogue

Abstract

In this article, I take a philosophical and literary approach to collaborative writing as inquiry, examining the intersubjective ethics of dialogue involved in narrative collaboration. I argue that autobiography and cultural studies have not delved deeply enough into the ethical implications of dialogue in collaborative life writing, which has resulted in an impoverished sense of responsibility in practices of writing with vulnerable subjects who have experienced trauma, marginalization, or oppression. Drawing on Paul Ricoeur’s description of dialogue as a process of verbal interaction and an expression of ethical intersubjectivity, I develop two critical aspects of dialogue—the hospitality of reception and the reciprocity of response—to show how both are necessary for collaborative partnerships to flourish and for vulnerable subjects to reconstitute themselves beyond their victimhood. I then examine how these ethical aspects work themselves out in practice through a study of the narrative collaboration, Stolen Life, by Rudy Wiebe and Yvonne Johnson.