R. Keith Sawyer, Improvised dialogues: Emergence and creativity in conversation. Westport, CT: Ablex, 2003. Pp. xi, 262. Hb $69.95.

Extract

This is a study of dialogues performed in improvisational (“improv”) theater. Improv actors work without scripts, using mime and dialogue to come to a working agreement about cast of characters, setting, and plot, usually within a few interactional turns. Their performances are thus an ideal site for studying how framing works: how interactants come to a mutual understanding of what is going on that is shaped by and subsequently shapes their contributions. Although it does not quite meet its ambitious theoretical goals, the book is well worth reading, both for the descriptions and examples of a fascinating set of language games and for Sawyer's intriguing suggestions about what we can learn from them.