History as Narrative: Intertextuality in Su Venkatesan’s The Bastion andJ H Nelson’s The Political History of the Madura Country Ancient and Modern

Abstract

Intertextuality, a postmodern concept invented by the Bulgarian-born French Semiotician Julia Kristeva in the late 1960s, refers to the emergence and understanding of any individual text from the vast network of discourses and languages that make up culture. In the light of Intertextuality, no text stands alone: all texts have their existence and meaning concerning a practically infinite field of prior text and significations. Intertextuality can be defined as a set of relations between texts. The intertextual elements can be found in quotations, allusions, literary conventions, imitations, parodies, unconscious sources, and sometimes translations. The present paper attempts to study the Intertextuality between the historical novel The Bastion by Su Venkatesan and the historical document of J H Nelson, The Political History of Madura Country, Ancient and Modern. Su Venkatesan’s The Bastion incorporates the history of Madurai from 1310 to 1910. The novel consists of two parts: Monarchy and The Citizens. The story opens with the invasion of Malik Kafur in Madurai; the remaining chapters of the novel deal with the History of the Vijayanagar Dynasty, the Telugu Migration, the formation of the Nayak kingdom in Madurai, the formation of the Poligar System, the ethnic history of the Kallar community, British company rule, and the British colonial rule in Madurai. The proposed article juxtaposes the intertextual relationships between the historical novel The Bastion and J. H. Nelson’s historical document The Political History of Madura Country, Ancient and Modern, the third part of The Madura Country – A Manual.