Polyphony in Fiction

The overall aim of this book is the application of stylistic theories and frameworks to literary texts for a deeper level of interpretation. For this purpose the author conducted an analysis based upon the concepts of polyphony and focalization of three novels from different literary periods commonly labeled Pre-modernism, Modernism, and Postmodernism, namely, George Eliots Middlemarch (1871-2), Joseph Conrads Nostromo (1904), and Saul Bellows Herzog (1964). Inspired by the work of Russian linguist-philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin the author attempts to clarify stylistically how polyphony is textualized in each novel and how each mode of polyphony reflects less parochial literary and cultural trends.