VOICES ACROSS THE BORDER: A POLYPHONIC AND DIALOGIC STUDY OF MANTO’S MOTTLED DAWN

Abstract

This essay delves into the multiple voices that echo in Saadat Hasan Manto’s collection Mottled Dawn (1997). Manto (1912-1955) is known for his psychological realism for he unveils the deepest recesses of the mind of his characters which are polyphonic and dialogic compared to monologism. The essay takes insight from Makheil Bakhtin’s theory of Dialogism and Polyphony. The essay is qualitative in approach and critical textual analysis of Saadat Hassan Manto’s short stories based on the partition of 1947. Manto being himself a migrant witnessed the bloodbath of partition and experienced its horrors. Thus his work is a true and realistic representation of the partition. The stories in the collection Mottled Dawn portray a range of voices which is the hallmark of Bakhtine’s concepts of dialogism and polyphony. Mikhail Bakhtine’s idea of dialogism explains that the text has a range of voices. The voice of the writer and the characters merge. It is the skill of the writer to give a vivid and clear picture which is painted not only by the voice of the author but also by the voices of the characters. The essay determines that Mottled Dawn contains a range of short stories with the background of the partition and involves a plethora of voices that appear, disappear and reappear on the scene.