direct power to mean “belong[ing] to several voices” (1990 p.239), distinct from that of the author. Bakhtin proposes that only this will build a genuine sense of truth rather than monophonic authorial bias.
The characters of a polyphonic novel, it therefore can be said, can only exist as genuine equal consciousnesses with the author under a “radical change in the authorʼs position (1963 p.67). Bakhtin explains the new position of the author with the use of the term “surplus” (1963 p.70), specifically the notion of a monologic authorʼs “surplus of vision with respect to their characters” (1990 p.241). This can be explained by authorial access to “knowledge of essential facts unavailable to the character” (1990 p.241) over and above the surplus of vision that is encountered in daily life. A monologic authorʼs access to this surplus creates characters that are finalized in their existence, placing him above them, restricting them to his will and not allowing for genuine dialogue (1963 p.72). A polyphonic authorial position creates unfinalizable “characters capable of answering him” in genuine dialogue (1963 p.63), which only occurs when this essential surplus has been sacrificed.
Huberman describes Norma Jeaneʼs choice to exist in an overabundance of identity as a strategy to “remain elusive and hard to pin down” (2007 p.6) but in relation to Norma Jeane taking the opportunity to create his / her identity as polyphonic it would be more apt to say that his / her strategy is to remain unfinalizable to any biographical information or physical presence. When the necessity for him / her to appear in public, a Norma Jeane is present but this is just a person who, for the duration, is Norma Jeane. His / her identity is appropriated by a plurality of personas, who perform given roles as Norma Jeane. For the work P4 Sky (1999) a Norma Jeane lay on a massage bed while being massaged by electro stimulators (fig.16) or for Drum Machine (2000) a Norma Jeane danced to the rhythm of her own heart (fig.17). Each independent Norma Jeane acts within his or her own capacity in dialogue with the artist, with the Norma Jeane of one piece existing as one consciousness within a plurality of consciousness that exist within the artist. Norma Jeaneʼs