This essay offers dialogic civility as a guiding interpersonal metaphor in
a time of narrative disagreement, an era in which ethical standpoints that
traditionally have undergirded discourse are in contrast, dispute, and disr
uption. Dialogic civility is an interpersonal metaphor grounded in the publ
ic domain and in a pragmatic commitment to keeping the conversation going i
n a time of narrative confusion and virtue fragmentation. This essay frames
a pragmatic case for dialogic civility as a key interpersonal metaphor for
negotiating difference in the public domain of postmodern communicative in
teraction.