Fictionalising Trauma: Paratextual Analysis of Select Tamil Novels

Abstract

Gerald Genette’s concept of paratext widens the horizons of literary canon in multidimensional approaches through textual materials that includes pictorial, title, author, font etc that acknowledges its key notions. In such context, innumerable modes of medium acts as a interlink to highlight the critical concept irrespective of prefixed protocols or notions embedded to the theory. On basis of such interpretation this paper attempts to relocate and redefine the projected idea through the layers of select Tamil novels and their Symbolic connectivity in conflicts of war, trauma, diasporic consciousness, photo realism, expressive images etc. Interpretation of parthenium plant with Srilankan war conflicts and its invisible political sketches through several imagery serves the primary essence of the paratextual sequence in Thamizhnadhi’s Parthenium. A thematic representation of carnatic music to project the cultural and geographical back ground of the protagonists embark on a journey to Paris and the quest for life well characterized in the novel Paris’ukku Po by Jeyakanthan. Vaikom Muhammad Basheer’s Tamil translation work of Balyakalasakhi gives the classic touch of artistic portrait through the brush strokes of certain unhappy occurrence in protagonist’s life. All the descriptions are analytically evolved and careful observations are systematically carried out in elitist view. Moreover the mere study of this paper well clarifies and serves the rich flavours of paratextual elements and traumatic factors that provides valuable and rich essence to the texts as well as clear understanding of the theory.