The overall aim of this book is the application of stylistic theories and frameworks to
literary texts for a deeper level of interpretation. For this purpose the author conducted an
analysis based upon the concepts of 'polyphony' and 'focalization' of three novels from
different literary periods commonly labeled 'Pre-modernism' 'Modernism' and 'Postmodernism'
namely George Eliot's Middlemarch (1871-2) Joseph Conrad's Nostromo (1904) and Saul Bellow's
Herzog (1964). Inspired by the work of Russian linguist-philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin the author
attempts to clarify stylistically how polyphony is textualized in each novel and how each mode
of polyphony reflects less parochial literary and cultural trends.
