A Study Of Polyphonic Features In The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie

Muriel Spark(1918-2006)is a contemporary Scottish female novelist.The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie,taking Edinburgh as background,mainly tells the story between Miss Brodie and Brodie set composed of six of her students.Previously,many critics apply various literary theories,such as existentialism,religion theory and feminism to analyze the characters and narrative of this novel,but to some extent,they pay less attention to the polyphonic features of this novel.Therefore,based on Bakhtin's polyphonic theory,this thesis explores The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.Based on the analysis of the theoretical applicability of Bakhtin's polyphonic theory,this thesis analyzes the polyphonic features of the novel from three perspectives:subjectivity,dialogism and unfinalizability.Firstly,compared with traditional novels,the characters in polyphonic novel can enjoy an equal position to express,while the author only describes the stories without making any final judgments.In The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie,every character is free to evaluate the personalities of Miss Brodie,Sandy and Mr.Lowther,while Spark does not make a final comment on those characters.At the same time,Miss Brodie has her own independent consciousnesses and thoughts in the novel.All of these show the subjectivity of the characters.Secondly,dialogism is divided into great dialogue and micro-dialogue.The former exists between the author and characters,characters and novel clues,while the latter mainly exists in the inner world of the characters.In the novel,the great dialogue between Miss Brodie and Miss Mackay,between the different clues and between the characters and Muriel Spark enable the reader to understand the antagonistic relationships between the characters and the texts better.The micro-dialogue in Miss Brodie and Sandy's inner world shows their inner contradictions which helps to shape the duality of these two characters.Finally,Spark doesn't give any comments on Miss Brodie and Sandy's betrayal and different readers have different views on it.At the same time,a variety of themes are paralleling,telling the whole story together.The above features together show the unfinalizability and openness of the novel.Finally,this thesis summarizes the polyphonic features of the novel and explains the artistic effect they create.It is pointed out that polyphonic features can help to expand the space of the plot and enrich the connotation of the novel,so that the reader can understand the real personalities of the characters in the novel,judge Sandy's betrayal and understand the multiple themes of the novel better.