Polyphonic Theory and Contemporary Literary Practices

Abstract

This paper briefly explores some of the ways in which Mikhail Bakhtin reaffirms the principle of the nonidentity yet inseparability of theory and practice in literary criticism. The lesson is one which stresses the need to disentangle the critical discourse from idealistic theoretical issues and engage in a materialist practice of criticism. If polyphonical dialogism (especially with respect to contemporary polyphony) is not to be confused with dialectics, then the most urgent and perhaps the most difficult task for the critic facing a polyphonic narrative is to negotiate the text in terms of the socio-historical actuality of the transformation which that text proposes. An analysis of D.M. Thomas' The White Hotel illustrates the ideological problems that arise when the operative system of the polyphonical narrative structure is stretched to the limit—as is moreover the case with many contemporary novels. And if the critic is to engage in a form of praxis, then he has to re-dialecticize the political (unconscious?) consciousness, in short, to politicize and not merely theorize its anticipated actualization. This article is available in Studies in 20th Century Literature: http://newprairiepress.org/sttcl/vol9/iss1/7 POLYPHONIC THEORY AND CONTEMPORARY LITERARY PRACTICES M.-PIERRETTE MALCUZYNSKI McGill University Any theoretical discussion presents at least one real danger: The temptation to closet the discussion tautologically and further theorize the theory, thus remaining within a speculative and experimental framework. This would mean having succumbed to the seduction of language, what Jean Baudrillard refers to when he asks whether every