Prosaic intertexting : a methodological enquiry into human be-ing.

Abstract

The thesis is the rhetorical development of a model of the utterance (principally) and of narrative (secondarily). The utterance is treated as the basic unit of human be-ing and therefore the basic analytic unit for social science. The starting motivation for the thesis is to provide a philosophical and methodological foundation upon which persons and people can be re-conceived in multiple and constructive renderings. The thesis draws on the collective works of Mikhail Bakhtin to generate new diction with which to characterize the model. First the model is stated, then six arguments to which the model is in answer are developed, finally the model is put into practice in nine analytics of data. Data from 65 editions of ‘letters to the editor’ of the Daily News newspaper are used as prototypes to demonstrate prosaic intertexting as an analytic model. Each letter to the editor is treated as representing a possible unit of the writer’s be-ing. Prosaic intertexting is demonstrated in creating these ‘letters to the editor’ as data (utterances) as a unit of analysis for social science. What is achieved is a model of how, not what, social science should do, though there are immediate implications for the ethics of research, therapy and peace-building.