Description
Book SynopsisThis book is the first scholarly attempt to examine Don Quixote from the angle of dialogism and polyphony. To begin with, although Mikhail Bakhtin considered Dostoevsky the creator of a polyphonic novel, we believe that the first elements of polyphony can be observed in Cervantes' Don Quixote. A preliminary objective will therefore be to articulate, without reducing the role of Dostoevsky in the creation of the polyphonic novel and relying on Bakhtin's interpretation of polyphony, heteroglossia, and multivoicedness, that the polyphonic structure appeared and evolved to a state of relative maturity centuries before Dostoevsky. The book will subsequently explore how and why the polyphonic structure was born within the classic monophonic structure of Don Quixote, the ways in which this new structure positioned itself in relation to the classic monophonic one, and what relations it may be said to have established with it resulting in a unique amalgamthe hybrid semi-polyphonic novel. An ove
Table of ContentsTable of contents Acknowledgments Introduction Part I: The World of Cervantes Chapter I: “I hear voices in everything and dialogic relation among them.” (M. Bakhtin) Chapter II: “We do not read words, we read ideas.” (M. Bakhtin) Chapter III: “I am against enclosure in a text.” (Bakhtin) Chapter IV: “Feci quod potui, faciant meliora potentes. I have done what I could; those who can will do better.” Chapter V: “Writers themselves do not create polyphonic novels.” (Bakhtin) Chapter VI: “Consensus omnium. By the agreement of all.” Chapter VII: “Quantum satis. The amount that is needed.” Chapter VIII: “Carthago delenda est. Carthage must be destroyed.” Chapter IX: “Life enters language through concrete utterances.” (Bakhtin) Part II: The World of Dostoevsky Chapter X: “Nothing is absolutely dead: every meaning will have its festival.” (Bakhtin) Bibliography About the author Index
