In “discourse in the novel”, Bakhtin attempts to redefine the meaning and purpose of the novel by discussing the non-unitary aspect of language (language is divided, stratified, categorized and constructed by historical, cultural and social context). In that sense, Bakhtin seems to say that the formalist or structuralist focuses too much on style (form) and misses the social interaction of discourses in literature. Since a language exists within a context that is homogenous, we cannot avoid stratification (in terms of lingusitic dialects, socio-ideological languages or the language of certain groups). Hence the notion of heteroglossia, which is defined as “the coexistence of district varieties with in a single language”, that is, having multiple varieties or dialects within a single language. According to Bakhtin, “each generation at each social level has its own language; moreover every age group has a matter of fact its own language, its own vocabulary, its own particular accentual system”. In fact, different social groups have different varieties of language and within the same social class different professions will also have their own varieties of language. Heteroglossia can also happen at the individual level. In fact, a person speaking a given language may adopt different varieties of his language to adapt to the context in which his discourse is made without being conscious of the difference between them. This shows us that any language is an interaction of different language uses which is unintentional in everyday communications.
Bakhtin later incorporates this heteroglossia into writing a novel and he talks about the “double voice” which means that when a dialogue takes part in a novel, there is a double intention of the author and that of the character speaking in the novel (the direct voice). In that sense, an author plays with the individual and social voices and brings them into a novel intentionally. If we look at the novel in this way, we will see how the author’s historical and social context speaks in his/her writing.
In short all of these voices are “organized in the novel into a structured stylistic system that expresses the differentiated socio-ideological position of the author amid the heteroglossia of his speech.”
