B a k h t i n
s p e a k s

In referring to the balance of authorities and voices in a text, Bakhtin proffers a view of argument in line with the Argument is War metaphor:

"In rhetoric, there are the unconditionally right and the unconditionally guilty; there is total victory, and annihilation of the opponent.

In dialogue, annihilation of the opponent also annhilates the very dialogic sphere in which discourse lives...this sphere is very fragile and easily destroyed."

[Bakhtin xxxvii]

Erica Jean Seidel