Chapter 18. Polyphony in interior monologues

Following the definition of ‘interior monologue’ (IM) given by Edouard Dujardin (1931), we analysed a corpus of novels (by Schnitzler, Joyce, Dostoevsky, Pirandello) in which this literary technique is used. We discovered that, although one of the conventional meanings of monologue is ‘discourse with one voice’, IMs reveal intrinsic dialogism among different voices. These voices come both from different ‘parts’ of the speaker and from others (imagined, internalized people). In this sense, IMs are polyphonic. We focus on the linguistic and communicative forms of IMs, on how people speak to themselves. The method used consists, mainly, of a qualitative, structural linguistic analysis. Passages taken from our corpus explain how polyphony works in IMs.

Published online: 29 August 2012
https://doi.org/10.1075/ds.15.24ch18