The autistic dialogue: A Bakhtinian framework for singular voices

From his early texts on language, consciousness, and ideology, to his later contributions to literary criticism, Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory centers speech in the dynamics of communicative exchanges. This chapter considers how Bakhtinian notions such as dialogue, double-voicing, and heteroglossia offer significant analytic purchase for understanding autistic phenomena, notably autistic language and autistic semiosis more broadly, what we refer to as autistic voice. By way of empirical demonstration, the authors examine everyday verbal exchanges between autistic children, their family members, and tutors in home contexts. These verbal exchanges were video recorded, transcribed and analyzed employing an integrated methodology, which combines linguistic, discourse, and acoustic analyses, highlighting the dialogues’ simultaneous singularity and multiplicity. Our examination yields an understanding of the autistic voice as inherently polyphonic, oriented to dialogue and creativity.