Competing Discourses of Forgiveness: A Dialogic Perspective

摘要

The present study analyzed online narratives of forgiveness/transgression to explore how the interplay of competing discourses struggled to construct meanings of forgiveness. Grounded in the theoretical framework of relational dialectics theory (RDT; Baxter, 2011; Baxter & Montgomery, 1996), a contrapuntal analysis found that discourses of forgiveness struggled in three main ways: (a) outward practice versus inward process, (b) liberation for self versus liberation for others, and (c) long process versus epiphany. Struggling in direct and indirect ways, competing discourses constructed meanings of forgiveness. Connections to previous research and implications for studying the practice of forgiveness are discussed.