On Polyphonic Features Of Robert Browning's Poetry In Comparison With Dramatization

This paper is aimed at exploring the polyphonic features of Robert Browning's poetry, and differing Bakhtinian polyphony from dramatization and multi-voicedness in dramatized texts. Nowadays misinterpretations and misconceptions of Bakhtin's polyphony often occur on pages of academic periodicals, and the root of the problem lies in the confusion of polyphony with dramatization. So it needs clarification.In a dramatized but homophonic text, the author, though disappears from the stage, still manipulates and controls his characters by his dominant voice (often not spoken, but easily felt) behind the curtain, or sometimes his voice is spoken by the mouths of his characters, but in either case the characters are only the author's puppets or mouthpieces carrying out his idea, they may have their personalities, but not subjectivities. Under the author's dominant voice, most traditional dramas and other dramatized works belong to the category of homophony. Whereas in a polyphonic text, the characters get their own independent subjectivities, that is, their consciousnesses are not manipulated by the author's, but are on an equality with him; the author's voice, if audible, is not the only dominant voice, but sinks into a multi-voiced dispute whereof no solution can be found. Most likely the disputing characters just represent the disputing sides in the author's split consciousness. This is the essential characteristic of polyphony.Robert Browning's poetry has both the characteristics of dramatization and polyphony, and serves the appropriate material for distinguishing polyphony from ordinary homophonic dramatization. Hopefully through an analysis of the polyphonic features of Browning's poetry, the reader can have a better understanding of the poet's artistic charm and his profound thought, and at the same time get a deeper comprehension of Bakhtin's theory.Robert Browning is an important poet of the late 19th century, and a contemporary of Feodor Dostoevsky. He followed Shelly as a Romanticist at the beginning of his literary career, but didn't succeed as the romantic literary trend had declined and the realism was thriving at that time. Later he endeavored to explore a new style of poem and successfully made the dramatic monologue, although not invented by him, the symbol of his poetry. Almost all his poems are dramatized, including some dramatic dialogues, but most are dramatic monologues, which means the monologist is not the author himself, but a persona in a dramatic situation, he/she is the only speaker, on his/her opposite side there is another persona or personae in the situation and thus constitute a dramatic conflict, but they don't speak for themselves, their words are only reflected in the monologist's speech. The dramatic monologue as a form holds very rich possibilities, including both homophonic and polyphonic types. This kind of writing skill is adopted later by some modern poets, like W. B. Yeats, T. S. Eliot, E. Pound and R. Frost. And some people regard him as the pioneer of the modern psychological poem, only he was born 100 years earlier his time. But in spite of the multitudinous researches on Browning and his poetry, none has been done yet from the angle of Bakhtin's polyphonic theory. So this paper is an attempt into a new topic of Browning studies.The paper will firstly give a contrast between polyphony and (ordinary homophonic) dramatization and then choose several most controversial poems of Robert Browning to examine their polyphonic features. It mainly consists of five parts. The first part distinguishes polyphony from dramatization and multi-voicedness of drama. It will present the definition of Bakhtin's polyphony and dramatization in common sense and illustrate the relationship between polyphony, dramatization and multi-voicedness. The second part focuses on the relation between the author and the character in Browning's polyphonic poems. In these poems, Browning endues his characters with subjectivity and priority, and he, the author, doesn't make any decision, declared or undeclared; while in his dramatized (but homophonic) poems, the author's voice is clear, and the characters act like puppets, dominated by the voice of the author.The third part accentuates dialogic relations in Browning's poems. In the polyphonic poems, Browning presents different voices debating with each other, and those images are the manifestation of Browning's own conflicting ideas or consciousnesses. These contrasting but unmerged voices together sing a polyphonic song, and no decisive voice can be found. While in his dramatized (but homophonic) poems, the author holds his governing place and now and then gives the reader hints about his judgment on the dramatic personae, spoken or not spoken, his voice is the decisive one, and is understood by any qualified reader.The fourth part investigates the character of unfinalizability of Browning's poetry. Browning likes to leave the reader a space for imagination, but it does not necessarily mean polyphony. Unfinalizability is achieved by unfinalizable dialogue in the poem (it's worth noticing that dialogue always exists or is hidden in Browning's dramatic monologues). This part examines this polyphonic feature by contrasting Browning's polyphonic poems with those dramatized (but homophonic) ones. For the polyphonic text, the dialogue leaves an open ending for the reader to debate, while for the dramatized text, dialogue either comes to a closed ending, or leaves a seemingly open ending for the reader to guess, that is, there is a ready answer not spoken, but suggested by the author's voice. The unfinalizable dialogue contributes to both the indeterminacy and uncompletedness of Browning's polyphonic poems.The fifth part of my thesis will draw attention on the reasons why Browning's poetry has polyphonic features, while most of his contemporaries were not aware of them. The answer lies in both his personal experience and the historical background of his time. His choice of dramatic monologue as his major writing style after his failure to follow Romanticists leads to the polyphonic character of his poems. Further, the thriving Capitalism and science that destroyed the old stable system also contribute to the result.At last, the thesis will draw a conclusion that Browning, as a contemporary of Dostoevsky, attached his poetry with some polyphonic features, although he didn't consciously do this. Like many great writers, Browning is ahead of his time. Through the comparison between Browning's polyphonic poems and his dramatized ones, it can be concluded that the polyphonic poems demonstrate differences from the dramatized ones in the relationship between the author and the character, dialogic relations and unfinalizability. By analyzing those poems of Robert Browning, the reader can have a deeper understanding of polyphony as well as Browning and his poetry.