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On the Polyphonic Features of the Sound and the Fury

Author: LengYanLi
Tutor: ChenFeng
School: Liaoning University
Course: English Language and Literature
Keywords: polyphony features necessity
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Type: Master's thesis
Year: 2011
Downloads: 78
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Abstract

The Sound and the Fury is the most representative work of the American novelist William Faulkner, and it is also one of the hottest issues in the academic field. The novels is about the decades of rise and fall of the Compsons, and reflects the conflicts of the civilization and culture in the American Southern society, as well as the people’s commotion and unrest in that great historical reform period. The unique artistic form of the novel fully confirms Faulkner’s attainment and artistic talent on writing skills. And its interpretation of the polyphonic art has reached a nearly perfect degree. It can be said that the novel itself is a large dialogue full of various voices, and a destiny symphony with a dismal and gloomy tone.The theory of polyphony is proposed by Mikhail Bakhtin when he researches the works of the Russian writer Dostoevsky. According to Bakhtin, many independent and unmerged voices and valuable consciousnesses in a work compose the true polyphony. He borrows the musical term polyphony to describe such multiple-voiced phenomenon in the creation of the novel. However, as an aesthetic type of literature, the applicability of the polyphonic principle is not only limited in Dostoevsky, but also demonstrates the new dimensions in the modern time. The modern polyphonic theory has been further developed in the representative works of Milan Kundera and Gerard Genette, and the modern polyphonic novel has gradually evolved into a more significant polyphonic structure mixed with the monologues and many different polyphonic voices from its original form with merely a monologue or polyphony.This thesis begins with analysis of the polyphonic theory, and discusses emphatically the typical polyphonic features dialogism, heteroglossia and unfinalizability, which are embodied in The Sound and the Fury, then reveals the polyphony of the structure, theme and the image of Caddy in the novel, so as to analyze the necessity of polyphony and to excavate the potential significance and the artistic value of the novel.The thesis consists of an introduction, the main body and a conclusion. Its main content is as follows:The introduction mainly makes a brief summary of the previous researches of The Sound and the Fury, and then points out the significance of the analysis on this novel from a polyphonic angle. The work has acquired widest critical attention in the literary field, and its artistic value is inestimable. Many literary critics and scholars have done lots of researches on the novel from various respects, and its unique narrative techniques have aroused many readers’interests, and yet few have done comprehensive studies based on its perfect interpretation of the polyphonic theory. However, if the polyphonic structural features of the novel are not explored from the stylistic perspective, the essence of the novel cannot be understood totally, let alone its eternal artistic charm. Thus this thesis tries to analyze The Sound and the Fury thoroughly from the polyphonic point of view.The main body is composed of three chapters:Chapter One mainly introduces the proposition, characteristics and the development of the theory of polyphony, and discusses the profound influence of the theory on literature. The emergence of the polyphonic theory not only opens a new world of literature, but also changes the way of thinking of mankind.Chapter Two analyses the embodiment of polyphony in The Sound and the Fury in depth. In the structural design, Faulkner focuses on a story narrated by four narrators in a carnivalesque time-space background, and these four voices, evaluations and positions are equal, which form a multiple-voiced polyphonic structure; in the theme, the work expresses the same theme from four different angles and voices, that is, the decay and collapse of the Southern aristocratic family the Compsons. For this theme, the four narrators hold mutually independent, parallel and connected evaluation towards the living state of the Compsons, which makes the theme show the distinctive polyphonic characteristics; in the portraying of the image of Caddy, the author never let the heroine Caddy appear on the stage directly, and her image is described through several different narrators’contrapuntal narration, because different narrators tell different Caddy, thus endues the image of Caddy with a strong polyphonic color.Chapter Three focuses on the exploration of the necessity of polyphony in the novel. The objective and subjective necessity are analyzed in details here. The work emerges in a pluralistic age, and various voices compete the right to speak. The epoch itself calls for a multiple-voiced novel, and makes the polyphonic novel possible. Meanwhile, the complexity of Faulkner’s thought which is caused by his special experience and his unique perception towards life also makes the polyphonic novel become his necessary choice.The conclusion summarizes the preceding arguments of the paper, and points out the main purpose of this thesis. Any literary work with great artistic value can never present its inner meaning easily, but in a unique way that make the readers involve in it and explore its potential significance. This is also the goal that Faulkner pursues. He manages to explore, test and perfect his creation techniques all his life. All these make The Sound and the Fury not only the pinnacle in the field of polyphonic novels, but also the immortal legend in the world literary history. Based on the theory of polyphony, the thesis studies the artistic value and potential meaning of The Sound and the Fury thoroughly and deeply, and thereby provides a fresh perspective for the studies of this novel. Meanwhile, the thesis also helps to deepen the understanding of Faulkner’s works, and inspires other scholars to study on The Sound and the Fury from the same perspective in some sense.

On the Polyphonic Features of the Sound and the Fury

Abstract

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