The Gluttonous Queen: dialogism and memory in elementary school writing

Abstract

This article discusses the relationship between dialogism and memory, considering the act of the writing process as the object of investigation. Characterized as a study of an ethnolinguistic nature, we propose a link between the notions of “semantic memory” and “object memory”. The proposed link uses Textual Genetics and Enunciation Linguistics as reference, espousing the hypothesis that the writer’s dialogic and intersubjective condition generates the activated content during the begetting and formulation of an idea. To this end, we analyze the initial minutes of the process of writing a fictional story, performed (and filmed) in an elementary school context, in which the participants are two newly literate students (6-year-olds). The recollection of this dynamic reveals not only how the title was conceived and the importance of the context of literacy, but also and especially the role of fortuity and unpredictability for an understanding of how it works.