Øredøvende tavshed - Aarhus Universitet

considered necessary by Bakhtin to define a novel, Auricula demonstrates the
fundamental characteristics of the concept of heteroglossia and dialogism. The analysis
of the linguistic peculiarities of Auricula shows a very deliberate play with different
linguistic spheres – features that the stylistic theory has been excellent at revealing. The
Bakhtinian theory of polyphony has also proven useful but only in a broader
understanding of the concept: the specific notion of a plurality of voices is not present in
Auricula but a more general use of the term revealed Auricula as very polyphonic all the
same. I have thus argued that the Bakhtinian categories in both his stylistic theory and his
theory of polyphony are too rigid.
For a further characterization of Auricula, the concept of grotesque realism appears
to be the most accurate term. From the grotesque realism both the concept of degradation
and inversion seem omnipresent in Auricula as does “the material bodily principle”. The
auricula singularis phenomenon is the explicit core of the grotesque realism
representation but at the metapoetic level grotesque realism also reigns: the concept of
degradation becomes another way to look at the demetaphorizational principle in the
Højholt poetics. However, the way grotesque realism is introduced in the novel, is
reversed compared with the Bakhtinian notion of the concept, and as such I have used the
term realistic grotesque to pinpoint Auricula. The realistic grotesque universe has also
close affinities with the one of the modern fantastic genre as Todorov sees it as it deals
with the complete acceptance of grotesque and fantastic elements in the realistic fictional
world. This mixture of different spheres is a result of the overall Auricula hybridity. The
postcolonial theory has proven useful in regard to these hybrid expressions: Auricula
shows how the world is ruled by hierarchical dichotomies and challenges this thinking by
promoting a hybrid and ambivalent world. Auricula thereby establishes the world of
literature as a Bhabhan “third space” of dialogical contrasts and ambivalence. All things
concluded this eclectic approach to Auricula has proven a very suitable way to analyze
Auricula and has also shed new light on the Højholt poetics in general.
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