A Study of Heterogeneity in Jokha AL-Harthi 's Novels

Abstract This study employs Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of heteroglossia as its theoretical framework to examine the polyphonic narrative strategies in the works of the distinguished Omani novelist Jokha Alharthi. Acclaimed for her award-winning novel Celestial Bodies, Alharthi has emerged as a pivotal voice in contemporary Arabic literature. This paper argues that her fiction is characterized by a pronounced dialogic and polyphonic structure, which mirrors the linguistic and ideological plurality of Omani society through the seamless integration of diverse speech genres, including proverbs, classical and modern poetry, and intertextual allusions. Such richly layered discursive practices not only enhance the narrative’s aesthetic texture but also articulate the distinct linguistic features and value systems inherent to characters from varied social strata. To investigate this, the research addresses two core questions: First, how is heteroglossia formally manifested within Alharthi’s narrative texts? Second, how does this linguistic diversity convey broader socio-cultural and humanistic meanings? Utilizing a qualitative, descriptive-analytical approach, this study conducts a close reading of four of Alharthi’s novels, treating embedded genres as primary analytical material to systematically decode the mechanisms of heteroglossia. The aim is to demonstrate that Alharthi’s heteroglossic writing serves as a critical lens for understanding the multicultural constitution and historical complexity of contemporary Oman, thereby contributing to scholarly dialogue in the fields of Arabic fiction studies, Bakhtinian discourse analysis, and the representation of social stratification in postcolonial literature.