heteroglossia.

The presence of different voices, speech styles, or viewpoints within a literary work, especially a novel.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• novelistic heteroglossia
• heteroglossia in a novel
• analyze heteroglossia

On the page

The novel's heteroglossia emerges through the clash of bureaucratic language and village gossip.

Her essay examines heteroglossia without assuming that every character speaks for the author.

Usage notes

Primary category: academic / formal / analytical. Lexical Type: Word. Forms: Usually uncountable; no ordinary plural in this sense. Commonness: uncommon (editorial estimate; not a corpus frequency statistic). Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1; numbered fields keep each relevant meaning separate. Research distinction: MW directly read diversity of voices, discourse styles or viewpoints within a literary work, especially a novel. Established English critical term translated from a Russian concept; not the untranslated Russian phrase as headword. Individually useful in research, criticism, methodology or conceptual analysis. Definitions and examples are original; no mood or intensity assigned to neutral analytical concepts. Commonness is an editorial estimate, not a frequency statistic. Writing functions: competing voices in a novel, socially differentiated language in literary criticism.