Herzog: A Hybrid Construction

Abstract

Saul Bellow’s Herzogis selected as a case study with theoretical basis from Bakhtin’s theory of novel. Herzog becomes a polyphonic text that is written in hybridized form. In this novel, Bellow’s representation of various ideas decentralizes the discourses that have become hegemonic and dominant in the American postwar era society. Bellow provides an opportunity for the other repressed discourses in Bakhtin’s carnivalistic approach to ideas. The example of Herzogclearly presents how in a polyphonic text the author cannot impose his or her ideology to the process of the dialogues. Indeed, the novel provides the notion that the ideas of the author become just one beside others and in a fixed process of give and take with them.