A master thesis in the Department of English at the College of Arts, University of Basrah, examined (Heteroglossia, Polyphony and the Carnivalesque: A Bakhtinian Reading of Selected Contemporary Novels).
The researcher Salma Abdel Hussein Dawoud’s thesis included six chapters (a literature review, linguistic pluralism, multiplicity of voices, and carnivalesque in Richard Rousseau’s novel “The Fall of the Empire,” multilingualism, multiplicity of voices, and carnivalesque in Harry Kensru’s novel, “Gods Without Men,” and linguistic pluralism, multiplicity of voices, and carnivalesque in Zadie Smith’s novel "Northwest Quarter" and multilingualism, multiplicity of voices, and carnivalesque in Emily John Mandel's novel (The Glass Hotel) and the conclusion).
The thesis aims to identify the modern polyphonic novel, which the Russian thinker Mikhail Bakhtin wrote about through the writings of the Russian novelist Dostoevsky.
The thesis concluded that the three elements of the polyphonic novel—heteroglossia, polyphony, and the carnivalesque—are clearly present in contemporary novels, as demonstrated through the analysis of several modern works.