Dialogic and Novel: A Study of Shashi Tharoor’s Riot

Abstract

Shashi Tharoor’s Riot exemplifies dialogism which is based on Bakhtin’s concept of polyphony. Bakhtin believes that novel is not monologic rather it is polyphonic. Bakhtin believes that novel as a form is dialogical or heteroglot. The polyphonic novel provides enough ground to take different perspectives into account other than the perspectives of the novelist.  The novel has rich elements of heteroglossia too. This heteroglossia presents the form in which 
different dialogues are presented. Bakhtin names it the social diversity of speech types that he discovered in the novel. The nature of the form of the Riot is dialogic which allows other voices to participate in the novel. The heteroglossia helps achieve multiple realities rather than one 
definitive unchanging meaning imported by the novelist.