Journal of Discourse Review
Open Access Humanitarian scholarship
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Open Access Humanitarian scholarship
Time to first decision
Volume: 1 Issue: 2
Year: 2025, Page: 129-137,
Received: June 15, 2025 Accepted: June 23, 2025 Published: July 22, 2025
This article examines Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future through the framework of Mikhail Bakhtin’s dialogism, emphasizing the novel’s polyphonic narrative and its significance in contemporary discourse on climate change. By investigating the multiplicity of voices and perspectives within the text, this article demonstrates how Robinson utilizes heteroglossia to construct a complex dialogue that mirrors the intricacies of global environmental challenges. A close textual analysis of its 106 chapters reveals how characters represent divergent ideologies and experiences, facilitating dialogic interactions that encourage readers to confront dynamic approaches to climate issues. Additionally, this research situates Robinson’s narrative strategies within broader interdisciplinary contexts, including eco-criticism and political theory, thereby enhancing the understanding of climate fiction as a vehicle for social critique. This examination illustrates how The Ministry for the Future functions not only as a cautionary narrative but also as an urgent appeal for collective action, highlighting the essential role of diverse voices in imagining sustainable futures.
Keywords: Dialogism, Polyphony, Climate Fiction, Heteroglossia, Narrative Structure, Ecological Criticism.
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© 2025 JDR Academic Trust. This is an open-access publication distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Kasthuri, S., & Priyadharsini, P. R. S. (2025). Encountering Bakhtin’s Dialogism and Polyphony in Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future. Journal of Discourse Review, 1(2), 129-137.