A linguistic analysis of personal and professional conflict can shed light on how collaborative creativity is enacted, allowing for further insights into the latent processes at play in theatre-making, while broadening the scope of applied linguistics and showing how creative inquiry can answer wider questions of collaboration and joint intention.
Workplace interactions are often characterised by asymmetrical power relations (Drew and Heritage, 1992). This asymmetry is clearly demonstrated in the structural and creative hierarchies that occur in theatre technical rehearsals. Professional conflict, while not particularly conducive to a harmonious work environment, can nevertheless be instrumental in bringing to light the ways in which colleagues balance their interactional goals with carefully managing relationships, i.e. how people get things done at work in the face of conflict or in less than ideal working conditions. While "interaction is by and large cooperative" (Levinson, 2006, p.45) as individuals seek to maintain "positive social value" (Goffman, 1967, p.5), there are myriad ways that this can be challenged while maintaining positive working relationships. Higher-status individuals may "do power" in a socially acceptable way while also allowing lower- or equal-status members of the team to challenge authority in a face-saving way. These tactics are chiefly performed linguistically during theatre technical rehearsals, as verbal interaction is the primary form of communication. A linguistic analysis of both personal and professional conflict in this setting can shed light on how collaborative creativity is enacted, allowing for further insights into the latent processes at play in theatre-making but also broadening the scope of applied linguistics and showing how creative inquiry can answer wider questions of collaboration and joint intention in creative endeavours.
References:
Drew, P. and Heritage, J. 1992. Analysing talk at work: An introduction. In: Drew, P. and Heritage, J. eds. Talk at Work. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.3–65.
Goffman, E. 1967. Interaction Ritual: Essays on Face-to-Face Behaviour. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Levinson, S.C. 2006. On the human 'interaction engine'. In: Enfield, N.J. and Levinson, S.C., eds. Roots of Human Sociality: Culture, Cognition and Interaction. Oxford: Berg, pp.39–69.
