Angela CREESE - Plenary Speaker Conference #4

The researcher as listening subject

In recent times there has been a movement towards expansive and engaging forms of representation of research in applied linguistics. Through ethnographic drama, poetry, stories, and film, applied linguists are venturing beyond the academic article to portray truth in ways which strive to bring together intellectual rigour and aesthetic sensibility. Genres which push us to be self-conscious about what we are saying, and consider who we are including or omitting from the picture, appear to be on the increase.

In this presentation I ask three questions pertinent to the conference theme:

• What constitutes adequate representation in the portrayal of languaging in social life?
• What do theorisations of subjectivity look like when the sensory rather than the discursive is the starting-point?
• What responsibilities do researchers bear to those with whom they conduct research, particularly in relation to hegemonies of visibility/invisibility (Deumert, 2022)?

To address these three points, I explore a theoretical direction located in relational ethics. With reference to 'humanism of the other' (Levinas 2003), I ask what it is to honour the human subject in the interpretation and representation of interactional encounters. I consider examples of ethnographic drama, research vignettes, and film, to explore their affordances in the illumination of sensory and affective dimensions of social life. I argue that artistic representation of research in applied linguistics allows contingency and indeterminacy in analysis of human difference, and demands that the ethnographer takes up a position as a responsive and ethical listening subject.

References

• Deumert, A. (2022). The sound of absent-presence: Towards formulating a sociolingusitics of the spectre. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics, 45(2), 135-153. doi: https://doi.org/10.1075/aral.21039.deu
• Levinas, E. (2003). Humanism of the Other. University of Illinois Press.
• Blackledge, A. and Creese, A. (in press). Essays in Linguistic Ethnography. Ethics, Aesthetics, Encounters. Bristol, Multilingual Matters
• Blackledge, A. and Creese, A. (2022). The potential of ethnographic drama in the representation, interpretation, and democratization of sociolinguistic research. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1111/josl.12546
• Blackledge, A., and Creese, A. (2022). Ode to the City – An Ethnographic Drama. Bristol, Multilingual Matters
• Blackledge, A., and Creese, A. (2021). Volleyball – An Ethnographic Drama: An Ethnographic Drama. Bristol, Multilingual Matters.
• Blackledge, A., and Creese, A. (2020). Interpretations–an ethnographic drama. Bristol, Multilingual Matters.