Making sense of the ordinary through discursive practices: a French ‘socio-writing’ turn?

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines the ways in which French experimental poetic practices have investigated, since the beginning of the twenty-first century, the way the social order is produced in everyday activities—how individuals talk, describe, account for and make sense of the ordinary. Through an analysis of three case studies, this article explores how numerous French practitioners seek to reintegrate art into the praxis of life, principally through language use. It shows how these practitioners develop proposals and methods that allow us to think about action, and thus redefine the very idea of aesthetic experience. Such explorations resonate strongly with a range of theoretical debates (pragmatism, interactionism, ethnomethodology) about the way we think about social reality, everyday reasoning and ordinary situations. It concludes by showing not only how these works challenge attitude and beliefs towards art and language, but also how they invite us to pay attention to attention itself.