Image and Text in Ravi Shankar and Vikram Seth’s Beastly Tales from Here and There
Samarth Singhal
Publication: Volume 1 Issue 1
Abstract
The paper discusses narrative choices, both visual and textual, made in Seth and Shankar’s Beastly Tales from Here and There (1991). The illustration of the book occupies a unique place in art history and print culture as a juxtaposition of text and image. Shankar’s caricatures which are placed beside Seth’s text are analyzed to make way for an argument that negotiates the impact of the image. The essay argues that the visual may exhort a potent reading of the textual, as opposed to the idea the text is simply accompanied by the visual. At the same time, the pressures and possibilities of dissent and agency in late twentieth century are read into the collaborative work to understand how the nation state post 1947 writes or envisions itself in fiction putatively meant for children which ultimately determines image versus text.
Keywords: Image, Caricature, Dissent, Children, South Asia, Beastly Tales from Here and There.
Samarth Singhal (samarth864@gmail.com) is a research scholar and an Assistant Professor at University of Delhi, India. Exploring connections between print and other mediums, his research interests include Fantasy, South Asia, Satire, Popular Fiction and re-appropriation of Myth.