Spaces of Polyphony

Spaces of Polyphony covers a lot of ground. It echoes the voices of researchers and their informants from many different places and backgrounds. Among the variety of languages under study and methodological approaches there is also a common ground and narrative thread underpinning the polyphonic chorus of the contributors. From a shared starting point of discourse analysis and inspiration from Bakhtin, the various authors span from East to West, from Moscow to Texas, from Romania and Czech Republic to Mexico. They look into all ages, starting from early childhood, and many walks of life, ranging from casual chatting among relatives to parliamentary speeches and TV shows, including formal education, literary inner monologue and translation. Irony, humour and self-awareness are recurrent themes. The array of voices and dialogism studied in this book is such that it even includes the silent (silenced) voices of people forced to express their heritage by weaving their discourse.

Guofeng Wang, Zhejiang University, in Discourse Studies Vol. 16:5 (2014):
The lively dialogism and colorful array of voices in this book make it an exciting and memorable ‘polyphonic journey’. It represents a valuable resource for students and scholars of dialogue analysis, literary analysis, linguistics and intercultural communication who seek to broaden their knowledge of the field beyond their specialization.