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Exploring Reflective Subjectivity through the Construction of the `Ethical Other' in Interview Transcripts

University of Sheffield, j.a.burr{at}sheffield.ac.uk

I aim here to explore the area of `other people's voices' in interview text through a comparative discussion of the work of George Mead and the Russian philosopher and theorist Mikhail Bakhtin. Specifically, I aim to outline Mead and Bakhtin's theories of reflective subjectivity, or how we recognize our self by looking back upon our experience. To explore the relative concepts of reflective subjectivity, I analyse selective quotes from the transcripts of interviews conducted with people who have received donor insemination about their views and experiences of donor anonymity. I conclude that the choices demonstrated in the interview data are, to use Bakhtin's term, answerable. The anticipation of response in dialogic forms represented in other people's voices is a potentially creative process and more than seeking agreement with the generalized other of the community. Bakhtin's unique theorizing contributes to our understanding of the ethical dimensions of everyday life.

Key Words: Bakhtin • Mead • other people's voices • reflective subjectivity

Sociology, Vol. 43, No. 2, 323-339 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0038038508101168


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