Analyzing Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye in Terms of Bakhtin’s Notion of “Heteroglossia”

Authors

  • Nusaibah. J. Dakamsih Jadara University
  • Raid. N. Al Hammouri Jadara University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1209.29

Keywords:

Bakhtin, Heteroglossia, The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison, polyphony

Abstract

This study aims at investigating the nature of Bakhtin's concept of heteroglossia, in Toni Morrison’s novel, The Bluest Eye, and how heteroglossia is achieved in Pecola Breedlove's interaction with others in terms of beauty and personal aspiration in the novel. Pecola is the protagonist of the novel, The Bluest Eye. The study’s main argument is whether heteroglossia has a significant role in revealing the hidden and implied intentions and meaning in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye in terms of beauty and personal aspiration. In order to prove the main argument of this paper, the researcher discusses Bakhtin's notion of heteroglossia and attempts to apply it to Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye. The study illustrates Bakhtin's celebration of the novel as a genre defined by its dimensions to include verified and multiple meanings best expressed in Toni Morrison's novel The Bluest Eye due to the novel's Chapterization, the narrators' voice, and Pecola’s recognition of beauty standards. The paper also shows how Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye is being categorized as a dialogic novel according to its heteroclite structure, and the narrator’s voice.

Author Biographies

Nusaibah. J. Dakamsih, Jadara University

Department of English Language and Translation

Raid. N. Al Hammouri, Jadara University

Department of English Language and Translation

References

Bakhtin, M.M. (1994). Pam Morris (ed.). The Bakhtin Rader. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-340-59267-0.

Bakhtin, M.M. (1993). Caryl Emerson & Michael Holquist (eds.). Speech Genres, and Other Late Essays. Austin: University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0-292-72046-6.

Bakhtin, M. M. (1981). The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays. Caryl Emerson & Michael Holquist (trans.) Michael Holquist (Ed.). Austin: Texas University Press.

Bereuter, V. A. (2017). “I want to be the language that wishes him well”. Unpublished Doctoral dissertation retrieved from 06/05/2021. http://othes.univie.ac.at/47038/1/49228.pdf.

Blackledge, A. & Creese, A. (2014). Heteroglossia as Practice And Pedagogy. Springer Dordrecht. ISBN978-94-007-7856-6.

Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopedia. (2022, March 3). Mikhail Bakhtin. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mikhail-Bakhtin.

Cabrera, C. & Teresa, M. (1996). “Ulysses and Heteroglossia: a Bakhtinian reading of the “Nausicaa” episode”. Revista alicantina de estudios ingleses. ISSN 0214-4808, (9), 33-40.

Coupland, N. (2007). Style Language Variation and Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

De Voss, V., & Kangira, J. (2019). A Necessary Ethics: Bakhtin and Dialogic Identity Construction in Four Morrison Novels. African Journal of Inter/Multidisciplinary Studies, 1(1), 25-36.

Gomes, R. R. (2016). Identity, Race, and Gender in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye. Retrieved from: https://www.lume.ufrgs.br/bitstream/handle/10183/156973/001017358.pdf?sequence=1

Jiang, X. (2007). Transcending the Bluest Eye: An Analysis of Toni Morrison’s Body Beauty. Comparative Literature: East & West, 9(1), 107-112.

Jimoh, A. Y. (2002). Toni Morrison: Biography. Afro-American Studies Faculty Publication Series, Literary Encyclopedia, 88, 1-14. Retrieved from https://scholarworks.umass.edu/afroam_faculty_pubs/88.

Joannou, M. (2000). Contemporary Women's Writing: From The Golden Notebook to The Color Purple. Manchester University Press.

Jocuns, A. (2018). Dialogues with Ethnography: Notes on Classics, and How I Read Them by Blommaert, J. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. Journal of Nusantara Studies, (Vol. 3(2), pp. 176-181).

Mankhia, A. & Alhusseini, H. (2020). Stylistic Analysis of Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye: A Bakhtinian Reading. International Journal of Innovation, Creativity and Change, 12, (4), 409-422.

Martin, A. (2020). The Heteroglossia of Mikhail Bakhtin (Modern Literary Theory). ASIN: B08CD3JTWC.

Morrison, T. (1970). The Bluest Eye. New York, Holt, Rinehart and Winston. eISBN: 978-0-307-38658-8.

Moses, C. (1999). The Blues Aesthetic in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye. African American Review, 33(4), 623-637.

Omari, K. & Jum’ah, H. (2014). Language Stratification: A Critical Reading of Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad According to Mikhail Bakhtin’s Concept of “Heteroglossia”. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 4(12), 2555-2563.

Oudija, R. (2019). Polyphony, and Dialogism of Discourse in the Novel According to Bakhtin: Manifestations and Significance. Tabayyun, 29 (1). 221-233.

Ortega, G. (2011). Writing Hybridity: Identity, Dialogics, and Women's Narratives in the Americas. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. University of Illinois, Urbana.

Rachel P. (2008). Dialogue and Desire. Mikhail Bakhtin and the Linguistic Turn in Psychotherapy. London, Routledge. ISBN 9781855754492.

Rivkin, J; Ryan, M. (2004). (eds.). Literary Theory: An Anthology. New York: Blackwell. ISBN 978- 1 -405- 1 0695-5.

Smith, R. F. (2000). Toni Morrison's argument with the Other: Irony, metaphor, and whiteness. (Unpublished Master thesis). California State University, San Bernardino.

Zbinden, K. (2006). The Bakhtin Circle and Translation. The Yearbook of English Studies, 36(1), 157–167. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3508744.

Downloads

Published

2022-09-01

Issue

Section

Articles