Literary “Voice” Misunderstood?

When literary dictionaries and theory talk of voice, they are not talking about hearing voices.

So, in the last post, when I quoted Toni Morrison as saying that she looked for a voice to narrate her novel, Jazz, and she went on to describe how the narrator voice interacted with the character voices, people naturally think that she was speaking metaphorically. And if she was, then my interpretation of it all in terms of multiple personality was really stupid.

But when Dickens (June 2013 post) and other novelists speak of voices—as in hearing the voices of their characters—they are not speaking metaphorically. They are hearing voices.

Does that mean Dickens and other novelists are crazy? No. Because there are two kinds of voices: 1. psychotic voices, as in schizophrenia, and 2. non-psychotic voices, as in multiple personality (dissociative identity). Psychotic voices are incoherent and/or delusional. Non-psychotic voices are coherent and rational, and are the voices of alternate personalities.