This paper outlines M.Bakhtin’s three concepts, i.e.: Polyphony, Heteroglossia, Hybridity, and examines the attempts to apply these concepts to Cultural Anthropology.
All these concepts are based on his basic concept of “dialogism” opposed to “monologism” in the utterance.
Bakhtin distinguishes four levels of “dialogue” in his “Problems of Dostoevsky’s poetics”, i.e.: (1) dialogue between author and writing, (2) dialogue between author and heroes of writing, (3) dialogue between heroes, (4) dialogue in the utterance (“micro-dialogue”).
So “Polyphony” is understood by Bakhtin as a whole structure of these four levels of dialogue and it means not only plurality of speaking person, but also plurality of speaking subject in the utterance.
Dialogues on the first two levels are applied to the methodology of ethnography by James Clifford.
The other Bakhtin’s concept “Heteroglossia” is derived from the Russian word “razno-rechie” which originally means a sort of multi-lingualism and is used originally in his “Discourse in the Novel”. This concept is understood and used by Clifford as an analog of Bakhtin’s “Polyphony”.
The third Bakhtin’s concept “Hybridization” is also discussed in “Discourse in the Novel” as a sort of his “double-voiced” discourse. This concept is applied to the strategy of post-colonial anthropology by Robert Young.
Concept of “dialogism” in the utterance, i.e. “double-voiced” discourse, would be applied to the analysis of such phenomenon as possession, story-telling and so on.
Finally Bakhtin’s “micro-dialogue”, also defined as a “double-voiced” discourse, is observed in everyday speech, i.e. in verbal expression of irony.
