On the Polyphonic Features of Saul Bellow’s Masterpiece Herzog

The American literary critic Irving Howe declares that there is not a fully satisfying denouement, an organic fulfillment of the action in the novels of Saul Bellow, such as Herzog. Based on Bakhtin’s theory of the polyphonic novels, after analyzing the details in the novel, this thesis puts forwards that Irving Howe’s point of view is unilateral, which has ignored the polyphonic artistic features of Saul Bellow ’s novels. An open interpretation of this novel is recommended. The polyphonic features of the entire novel, such as conversational characteristic, spatiality, synchronicity, the open and unfinished ending, and the uncertainty and incompleteness of the characterization should be taken into consideration in the process of interpretation of this novel in order to better understand the characteristics of complexity, ambiguity and profundity of this novel and grasp its rich connotation.