Diverse Social Languages Converge and Coincide: Discourses and Dialogues in Edith Wharton's <i>The Custom of the Country</i>

Abstract

Mikhail Bakhtin worked with his enterprising study of the author-hero relation all his life. His works bring the philosophy of dialogism into the discussions of literary works and sees the relationship between the author and the hero in terms of a dialogue. The author should release his power to enable the full blooming of the consciousness, as revealed in language of the hero. With all the characters blooming in their diverse ideologies, the novel can be written in the mode of “polyphony” with its diversity of languages deeply rooted in social life. Nevertheless, the authorial discourse is responsible for the style of the novel. He must be conscientious in the arrangement of characters and settings and meticulous in presenting the structure of the narrative. This study examines those diverse social languages presented in Edith Wharton's The Custom of the Country to testify that the author's voice strikes roots in the formation of a novel. Pointing out Bakhtin's possible mistakes in the discussion of those social languages in Wharton's novel, I want to show that the linguist's persistence in the author-hero dialogical sphere needs to be revised to be more satisfying.

Keywords: dialogism, polyphony, discourse, dialogue, old New York aristocracy

MARANG Vol. 18 2008 pp. 103-120