Heteroglossia

Literary/ Cultural Context Note

Simon Dentith (University of Reading)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 2.2.1.00: Slavic and Russian Writing and Culture: Old, Medieval and Tsarist, 700-1917.
Vol. editors: Neil Cornwell (University of Bristol), Roman Koropeckyj (University of California, Los Angeles), Andrei Rogatchevski (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway)

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The term heteroglossia translates the Russian

raznorecie

(literally, multilanguagedness), a term coined by Bakhtin in the essay “Discourse in the Novel” (published in English in

The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays

, edited by Michael Holquist, translated by Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist [University of Texas Press, 1981]). The term alludes to the multiplicity of languages within the apparent unity of any national language. However, it should not be confused with a simple celebration of linguistic diversity, for the term alludes not only to the co-existence of “languages” within a language, but their co-existence in a state of tension and competition. In particular, it alludes to the tension between those forces within a national language which are pulling it towards a…

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253 words

Citation: Dentith, Simon. "Heteroglossia". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 18 July 2001 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=510, accessed 23 November 2024.]

Heteroglossia

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