The Authoring of Institutional Practices: Discourse and Modes of Participation of Subjects

Abstract

In this text I consider authoring as a historically instituted and instituting social practice. The concept of author(ship)—as a social function concerning the action and identification of specific subjects in institutional places—is discussed in relation to authority (power position) and authorization ((dis)empowering position). I highlight Foucault’s and Bakhtin’s most relevant theoretical contributions to the issue, inquiring about the concrete possibilities and conditions of such practice. Within the scope of an empirical research developed with a group of students in a Brazilian public school, attention is drawn to the graduation ceremony as a commonplace within the school scenario. I focus my analyses on discursive practices, highlighting two speeches uttered at the ceremony as particular instances of authorship, and relate them to two students’ informal talk. The analyses point to the interplay of voices and positions in an intricate web of interpersonal relationships interwoven with/in and marked by the institutional loci.

Keywords

author(ship)discourse practices historical-cultural perspective institutional practice

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