This thesis examines marginal voices as new ways of reading and understanding narrative polyphony in three of Fedor Dostoevsky’s final novels: The Idiot, Demons, and Brothers Karamazov. Narrative development in these works is driven by an open and continuous exchange of ideas, but I argue that not all voices are heard equally. I build on Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of polyphony as a means of studying the interplay of fully valid voices. I contend that marginal voices are integral to the narrative and contribute to the ideological core of each text.
In Chapter 1, on The Idiot, I consider how motifs reveal the protagonists’ individual experience of condemnation amidst the breakdown of communication in high-society St Petersburg. Two women, Marie and Nastasia Filippovna, are at the heart of this investigation, and they establish the theme of marginalised female voices as a key source of narrative dissonance. In Chapter 2, I investigate the ethical problems that frame the unparalleled tragedy of Demons. Maria Lebiadkina is the focus of this study, and although she is disparaged for her physical and mental condition, the echo of her voice throughout the narrative carries the novel’s hope of moral regeneration. In Chapter 3, on Brothers Karamazov, I examine how the dominant voices of the Karamazov men silence those around them. I focus on the motifs of hysteria and motherhood to bring the missing voices of women to the narrative foreground.
Through this analysis, I demonstrate how Dostoevsky relies on marginalised voices as a source of ideological dissonance. This dissonance provides new insight into the author’s representation of women, his fascination with the unorthodox faith of marginalised communities, and the power of disruptive speech from the margins. Scholarship has long focused on the title characters of Dostoevsky’s novels, and my thesis complements this work by considering the fuller range of voices in the polyphonic narrative.Ph.D
