Polyphony (literature)
Encyclopedia
In literature, polyphony is a feature of narrative, which includes a diversity of points of view and voices. The concept was introduced by Mikhail Bakhtin
, based on the musical concept polyphony
.
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', going 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.
Russian
Mikhail Bakhtin
Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin was a Russian philosopher, literary critic, semiotician and scholar who worked on literary theory, ethics, and the philosophy of language...
, based on the musical concept polyphony
Polyphony
In music, polyphony is a texture consisting of two or more independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords ....
.
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', going 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
The Brothers Karamazov
The Brothers Karamazov is the final novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Dostoyevsky spent nearly two years writing The Brothers Karamazov, which was published as a serial in The Russian Messenger and completed in November 1880...
). Through his descriptions the narrator's voice merges imperceptibly into the tone of the people he is describing.
Modernism and contemporary examples
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— The Witch of PortobelloThe Witch of PortobelloThe Witch of Portobello is a fiction work by Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho published in 2007, about a woman born in Transylvania to a Romani mother, who is orphaned and later adopted by a wealthy Lebanese couple.-Style:... - Aleksandr SolzhenitsynAleksandr SolzhenitsynAleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn was aRussian and Soviet novelist, dramatist, and historian. Through his often-suppressed writings, he helped to raise global awareness of the Gulag, the Soviet Union's forced labor camp system – particularly in The Gulag Archipelago and One Day in the Life of...
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- The Dragonbone ChairThe Dragonbone ChairThe Dragonbone Chair is the first novel in Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy. The saga follows a young man named Simon as he is caught up in an epic adventure.-Plot introduction:... - Herman WoukHerman WoukHerman Wouk is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American author of novels including The Caine Mutiny, The Winds of War, and War and Remembrance.-Biography:...
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See also
- Ensemble castEnsemble castAn ensemble cast is made up of cast members in which the principal actors and performers are assigned roughly equal amounts of importance and screen time in a dramatic production. This kind of casting became more popular in television series because it allows flexibility for writers to focus on...
- Townsend, Alex, Autonomous Voices: An Exploration of Polyphony in the Novels of Samuel Richardson, 2003, Oxford, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt/M., New York, Wien, 2003, ISBN 978-3-906769-80-6 / US-ISBN 978-0-8204-5917-2
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)
- Brothers Karamazov likened to polyphony in a Bach fugue [Shockwave Player required]
Russian