WHOSE TEXT IS IT ANYWAY? AUTHORITATIVE AND DIALOGIC TENDENCIES IN JOSEPH CONRAD’S UNDER WESTERN EYES
WHOSE TEXT IS IT ANYWAY? AUTHORITATIVE AND DIALOGIC TENDENCIES IN JOSEPH CONRAD’S UNDER WESTERN EYES

Summary/Abstract: In this essay, I address the multiplicity of voices in Joseph Conrad’s Under Western Eyes, showing how it is inherent to understanding the cultural gap posited in the novel between “east” and “west”. By tracing three parallel quests for the monologic voice in the novel, those of the protagonist, the narrator, and the reader, I show that, while an authentic voice cannot be differentiated and isolated from other voices influencing it, the search for an individual voice generates a high level of involvement in the reader and may lead to a new understanding of the nature of heteroglossia in text and society. This I do while underscoring the links and dichotomous differences between narrator and protagonist, and how they reflect the east-west gap.

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