Polyphony and representativeness in The Sound and the Fury

Abstract

The aim of this article is to discuss the way in which the form of multiple voices in the novel The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner relates to the question of democracy, more specifically, to the theme of representativeness. The questions we seek to answer
include: the extent to which the plurality of voices equally valid; the way this polyphony depicts the question of representativeness; and the way in which the novel constructs, through fiction, the social relationships and conflicts of its setting. Our theoretical grounding is based on Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of the polyphonic novel and the double-voiced discourse. We conclude that Faulkner’s novel shows that, as in real life, there is no representativeness, and thus, no democracy.