AbstractsPhilosophy & Theology

This thesis addresses the gap in both the theory and practice of bilingual typography by extending Bakhtin’s notion of dialogism and its aesthetic principles to the domain of letterforms. Rather than linguistic content, which may constitute an obstacle to communication, the thesis focuses on the formal-material structure of letterforms as a shared territory of bilingual discourse. This approach allows for developing a formal-material system of relations through which bilingual letterforms are dialogically integrated such that the readers of both languages can simultaneously experience a dialogic moment. This proposed ‘Dialogic Coding System’ (DCS), is explored and demonstrated with reference to two culturally and formally disparate sets of letterforms, namely, English and Farsi. The development of the DCS requires an exposition of the fundamental structure of letterforms in order to determine the elements of integration. Through the method of analytic induction the thesis develops a general theory of letterforms: ‘The Theory of Letterform Genome’ (TLG), which sheds light on the letterforms’ morphological commonalities and the dialogic potential across writing systems. The DCS is instantiated by a gallery installation featuring English and Farsi integrated forms. This permits a discussion of the theoretical implications of the system by analysing the formal-material structure and processual nature of the dialogic experience. An ontological-semantic account of the category of Relation is proposed that includes dialogue to distinguish between the concepts of plurality, polyphony, and dialogicality, which are frequently used interchangeably in the interpretation of Bakhtin’s dialogism. In consequence, the study itself serves as a dialogic point of encounter at which Bakhtin’s notion of dialogism and the theory and practice of bilingual letterforms are mutually informed and extended.