The Polyphonic World of Cervantes and Dostoevsky

Slav N. Gratchev, Slav Gratchev

• Publisher: Lexington Books
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9798216216223
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Spanish Language
• Index: Literature

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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• The Polyphonic World of Cervantes and Dostoevsky
• The Polyphonic World of Cervantes and Dostoevsky
• Contents
• Acknowledgment
• Introduction
• Part I
• THE WORLD OF CERVANTES
• Chapter 1
• (M. Bakhtin)
• Chapter 2
• “We do not Read Words, we Read Ideas.” (M. Bakhtin)
• Chapter 3
• “I am Against Enclosure in a Text.” (Bakhtin)
• Chapter 4
• Feci quod potui, faciant meliora potentes. [I Have Done What I Could; those Who can, Will do Better.]
• Chapter 5
• “Writers Themselves do not Create Polyphonic Novels.” (Bakhtin)
• Chapter 6
• “Consensus omnium.” [By the Agreement of All.]
• Chapter 7
• “Quantum satis.” [Amount that is Needed.]
• Chapter 8
• “Carthago delenda est.” [Carthage must be Destroyed.]
• Chapter 9
• “Life Enters Language through Concrete Utterances.” (Bakhtin)
• Part II
• THE WORLD OF DOSTOEVSKY
• Chapter 10
• “Nothing is Absolutely Dead: Every Meaning will have its Festival.” (Bakhtin)
• Works Cited
• Index
• About the Author