Dialogic Alterity: Bakhtin & Faulkner’s Polyphonic Narration

This scholarly analysis explores Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of dialogic alterity and its concrete manifestation in William Faulkner’s polyphonic modernist novels. Rooted in Bakhtin’s core concepts of heteroglossia (the coexistence of multiple socially and ideologically distinct linguistic discourses) and responsive, reciprocal interaction between independent consciousnesses, dialogic alterity frames the novel as an open arena where multiple autonomous voices interact without subordination to a single, authoritative authorial truth. Unlike traditional monologic narration, polyphonic narrative structure centers the autonomy of character voices, preserves unresolved ideological tensions, and requires the author to step back from omnipotent control to facilitate equal, unfinalized dialogue. The study tests this framework through close analysis of four of Faulkner’s major works: the competing subjectivities of the Compson family in *The Sound and the Fury*, the fragmented rural Southern identity constructed via 15 distinct heteroglossic narrators in *As I Lay Dying*, and the subversive challenge to white supremacist and patriarchal hegemony through marginalized autonomous voices in *Light in August*, and unresolved tension between past and present in *Absalom, Absalom!*. This analysis demonstrates that Faulkner deliberately deploys polyphonic structure to embody dialogic alterity, forcing readers to engage actively with ideological pluralism rather than passively accept a fixed narrative truth. This synthesis of Bakhtinian theory and Faulknerian narrative practice provides a robust critical framework for unpacking the complexity of modernist literature and the messy, plural nature of human consciousness and social life.