Rasoul Balavi

Polyphony is among the topics that are of high significance in fiction literature studies in the last decade. Accordingly, one of the notable theories is the polyphonic theory by Mikhail Bakhtin, the Russian theoretician. According to Bakhtin, polyphony is the same distribution of voices in the text without one voice dominating the other and violating the voices independence. The best types of literature for reflecting voices are story, novel and narrative, the Bakhtin considers only a novel worthy of attention and valuable providing the opportunity for the emergence of different voices. The present study has analyzed the novel Ra'i Ghawali (Camel Shepherd named Ghwali) by Wafa Al-Umimi (1989), using a descriptive-analytical approach, based on the aforementioned theory. Al-Amimi has attempted to illustrate the views and misconceptions of society towards divorced women in this work. Women who strive to fulfill their dreams, but people in the society prevent them from growthing, developing their talent by sticking to their old beliefs. Realism and presentation of a true picture of society are reasons for choosing this novel. The results of this research indicate that Al-Amimi has created various voices aimed at critiquing the social structures of society regarding divorced women. Considering the elements of polyphony proposed by Bakhtin, the existence of these voices along with other evidence such as the multiplicity of different discourses and ideologies, intertextuality, multiplicity of narrators, and the sudden change of perspective and chronotope categorizes this novel as one of polyphonic literature.