Heteroglossia

Have you ever read a novel where the characters all talk differently — some formally, some casually, some emotionally, some sarcastically? That’s not just good writing. It’s something called heteroglossia, a fancy word that means “many voices.” Coined by Russian philosopher and literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin (here he is again.Wow, this guy must have been the Issac Newton of Literature), heteroglossia refers to the presence of multiple speaking styles, opinions, and worldviews within a single story — especially when they clash or interact.

Heteroglossia makes stories feel alive and real. Think of a movie like RRR (India), where tribal language, colonial English, and formal Hindi all mix to create tension and drama. In Narcos (Colombia), Spanish and English collide — along with the voices of the narrator, the drug lords, the police, and the people — all telling the same story, but from very different angles.

What makes heteroglossia powerful is that it reflects the real world, where no two people speak or think exactly alike. In literature, it’s often used to show conflict, culture, class, or power differences. In short, heteroglossia makes a story more than just a single voice — it becomes a conversation. A novel, film, or show using heteroglossia doesn’t just tell you what the author thinks. It lets all its characters speak, even if they disagree. And in doing so, it mirrors the world: messy, noisy, and full of meaning.