Polyphony of midnight’s children: dispersion of voices and genres in Midnight’s Children = Polifonia dos filhos de meia-noite: dispersão de vozes e gêneros em Midnight’s Children
This paper explores the aspect of polyphony in Salman Rushdie’s novelMidnight’s Children (1981). The essence of polyphony in a novel, following Mikhail Bakhtin, is the presence or use of different independent voices that are not merged into one dominant voice. The author, the protagonist, the narrat...
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Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Universidade Estadual de Maringá
2010-01-01
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Series: | Acta Scientiarum : Language and Culture |
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://periodicos.uem.br/ojs/index.php/ActaSciLangCult/article/view/1255/1255 |
Summary: | This paper explores the aspect of polyphony in Salman Rushdie’s novelMidnight’s Children (1981). The essence of polyphony in a novel, following Mikhail Bakhtin, is the presence or use of different independent voices that are not merged into one dominant voice. The author, the protagonist, the narrator, the various other characters, the reader, the form and the content of the text, and even the voices from the world outside the text, all these participate in the polyphony. We are invited to explore multiple, co-existing meanings rather than to find a single, finalized meaning. In our age of rapid changes in concepts, styles, modes of representation, and technology, it is more profitable to direct our attention to multiple realities rather than to look for one definitive, unchanging meaning. Since the entities engaged in the polyphony take on different roles and voices in different contexts of time, space, and culture, the voices we hear in the polyphony multiply. We come to see that reality can have different meanings. Reading a novel such as Midnight’s Children as a polyphony or dialogue among different voices can serve as an analogy for a mode that we can adopt in our attempts to understand reality.<br><br>Este ensaio analisa a polifonia no romance Midnight’s Children (1981),de Salman Rushdie. De acordo como Mikhail Bakhtin, a essência da polifonia é a presença ou o uso de vozes diferentes e independentes que não se misturam numa única voz dominante. O autor, o protagonista, o narrador, os vários personagens, o leitor, a forma e ocontexto do texto e até as vozes de fora do texto participam nesta polifonia. Exploram-se, portanto, os sentidos múltiplos e coexistentes; rechaça-se a procura de um significado unívoco e definitivo. Numa época de grandes mudanças em conceitos, estilos, modos de representação e tecnologia, seria muito melhor direcionar nossa atenção às múltiplas realidades do que procurar um sentido imutável. Já que os personagens na polifonia assumem papéis e vozes diferentes em diferentes contextos de tempo, espaço e cultura,multiplicam-se as vozes ouvidas na polifonia. A realidade assume vários sentidos e a leitura de Midnight’s Children como um romance polifônico ou como diálogo entre vozes diferentes servirá como analogia para uma modalidade que podemos adotar para entender a realidade. |
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ISSN: | 1983-4675 1983-4683 |