Polyphony (literature)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Polyphony (literature) is a feature of narrative, which includes a diversity of points of view and voices. Concept was invented by Mikhail Bakhtin.
One of the most known examples of polyphony is Dostoevsky's prose. Bakhtin has characterized Dostoevsky's work as polyphonic: unlike other novelists, he does not appear to aim for a 'single vision', and beyond simply describing situations from various angles. Dostoevsky engendered fully dramatic novels of ideas where conflicting views and characters are left to develop unevenly into unbearable crescendo (The Brothers Karamazov). Through his descriptions the narrator's voice merges imperceptibly into the tone of the people he is describing.
[edit] References
- Mikhail Bakhtin — Problems of Dostoyevsky’s Art: Polyphony and Unfinalizability
[edit] Modernism and contemporary examples
- James Joyce — Ulysses
- Melvin Burgess — Junk, Doing It;
- Alexander Prokhanov — 600 Years after the Battle.
[edit] External links
English
- R. Wellek Bakhtin’s view of Dostoevsky: "polyphony" and "carnivalesque"
- R. Clark Literary Encyclopedia Polyphonic novel (membership needed to read the full version)
Russian
