Polyphonic World of Cervantes and Dostoevsky

By Slav N. Gratchev

This 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 amalgam--the hybrid semi-polyphonic novel. An overarching concern throughout the project will be to trace Cervantes' search for new and more sophisticated expressive possibilities that the old, monophonic narration could not offer, while also shedding light on how Cervantes systematically and deliberately employed polyphonic structure in Don Quixote.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1498565530
• ISBN13: 9781498565530
• Release Date: December 2017
• Publisher: Lexington Books
• Length: 162 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.3" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Amazing book that finally arrived!!

I bought this book few weeks ago, and I was amazed by the sharp intelligence of the author who seems to be paving news roads to our understanding of two genius - Cervantes and Dostoevsky. THis book soon will become a new cornerstone in literary theory and I would not be surprised to see it as a bestseller soon that will be studied all over the world.