Investigating Multivocality Representations in the Novel al-Zaman al-Mūhish (the Desolate Time) Using Bakhtin's Narrative Theory

Polyphonic narrative technique (multivocality) appeared remarkably and manifestly in Modernism and Postmodernism, because unlike the classical novel, it is dependent on the diversity and multiplicity of narrative perspectives that eliminates the dominance of the novelist and the omniscient narrator, and allows the views of different characters to be appeared in the way that characters are able to express their intellectual and emotional potentials freely and extensively. The polyphonic narrative technique represents different patterns of consciousness and diverse ideologies that are democratically appropriate to the complexities of the modern age and their effects on the narrative structure of modern novels and other elements. The addition of fictional characters leads to the multiplicity of text levels, the mobility and dynamics of characters, the exchange of roles, and the development of the meanings of narrative discourse, that gives the novelist freedom and ability to hide behind the mask of their characters, thereby removing monotony (Immobility) and static of text. Russian critic, Mikhail Bakhtin, is the first to refer to the "polyphonic narrative" by studying the works of Dostoyevsky, who cares about the complicated and diverse aspects of contemporary man's psychology and social life. In this regard, using a descriptive-analytical method in the light of Bakhtin's theory, the present study tries to analyze this issue and express the most important features of Polyphonic narrative in the novel "The Desolate Time" (al-Zaman al-Mūhish) by Syrian novelist Haidar Haidar. One of the most important results of this study is that this novel reaches the principle of polyphonic technique through dialogue and dialectics of characters with different and heterogeneous voices using techniques and mechanisms including: the multiplicity of ideologies, narrative perspectives and artistic methods can be setting, hybridisation, parody, stylisation, and expressive forms that reflect the internal and external crisis of characters which symbolizes the Arab community.