The pioneering work of Bakhtin has led scholars to see all discourse as "dialogical." Contributors to this volume argue that something is overlooked with this focus. Many speakers, especially in political and religious contexts, craft monologues-single-voiced statements to which the only expected response is agreement or faithful replication.

Contributors Acknowledgments Introduction - Imagining the Monologic - Matt Tomlinson Chapter 1 Cultural Replication: The Source of Monological and Dialogical Models of Culture Greg Urban Chapter 2 Dialogic Prophecies and Monologic Vision Jon Bialecki Chapter 3 Monologue and Dialogism in Highland New Guinea Verbal Art Alan Rumsey Discussion Is It Monologic? Is It Dialogic? What Difference Does It Make? Don Kulick Chapter 4 "With Unity We Will Be Victorious!": A Monological Poetics of Political "Conscientization" within the Cuban Revolution. Kristina Wirtz Chapter 5 From Neighborhood Talk to Talking for the Neighborhood Zane Goebel Chapter 6 Monologue and Authority in Iran: Ethnic and Religious Heteroglossia in the Islamic Republic James Barry Discussion Diving into the Gap: "Words," "Voices," and the Ethnographic Implications of Linguistic Disjuncture. Krista E. Van Vleet Chapter 7 Acting with One Voice: Producing Unanimism in Algerian Reformist Theater Jane E. Goodman Chapter 8 Creedal Monologism and Theological Articulation in the Mennonite Central Committee Philip Fountain Chapter 9 The Public Metaculture of Islamic Preaching Julian Millie Discussion The Monologic Imagination of Social Groups Courtney Handman Conclusion Religious and Political Terrain of the Monologic Imagination

Selling point: The volume sets a course for future research-pioneering an argument about the force of monologue in political and religious speech. Selling point: Explores the interplay between monologism and dialogism. Selling point: Presents vivid ethnographic case studies come from a wide range of societies: the United States, Iran, Cuba, Indonesia, Algeria, and Papua New Guinea. Selling point: The volume is theoretically sophisticated but accessibly written for a general audience.

Matt Tomlinson is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the Australian National University. Since the mid-1990s, he has conducted research on culture, language, and ritual in Pacific Islands societies. He is the coeditor of several volumes and the author of two books, In God's Image: The Metaculture of Fijian Christianity (2009) and Ritual Textuality: Pattern and Motion in Performance (Oxford, 2014). Julian Millie is Associate Professor and Australian Research Council Future Fellow in Anthropology at Monash University. He has completed research on Islamic practice in Indonesia and on the genres of Islamic culture in the region. He has published two books: Bidasari: Jewel of Malay Muslim Culture (2004) and Splashed by the Saint: Ritual Reading and Islamic Sanctity in West Java (2009).

Selling point: The volume sets a course for future research-pioneering an argument about the force of monologue in political and religious speech. Selling point: Explores the interplay between monologism and dialogism. Selling point: Presents vivid ethnographic case studies come from a wide range of societies: the United States, Iran, Cuba, Indonesia, Algeria, and Papua New Guinea. Selling point: The volume is theoretically sophisticated but accessibly written for a general audience.