Chapter One
T h e Prorpectus
The present day reader does not give much critical attention t o the
historical romance; for him it is a literature that does not cater much t o
the modern taste. This research aims at a reassessment of the genre from
t h e perspective o f 'historical poetics."
It is also an attempt t o bring
into comparison t h e representative w o r k s of t w o well-known practitioners o f the genre--Sir Walter Scott and C . V . Raman ~ i l l a i * - - t w owriters
of different nationalities and cultural milieus.
The historical romance is mainly known by t h e name of Sir Walter
Scott, the pioneer of the tradition. A proper understanding of the genre,
therefore. necessitates an understanding o f the works o f S c o t t and t h e
other writers of his tradition. In the long course of literary history, the
historical romance underwent many adaptations and influences, in the hands
o f diverse individuals, in different places and p e r i o d s . H o w e v e r , t h e
departures were not of a massive scale: the members o f t h e genre have
always maintained family likeness. Hence, a w o r k of t h e genre can be
better understood, when it is placed in relation with the important works
of the writers of the highest calibre who occupy the highest pedestals in
t h e g e n r e . On this meeting ground o f intellectual peers, t h e different
aspects of their works engage in dialogue, bringing out their family likeness a s well a s differences. T h e inferences a l s o help u s recognize t h e
features that these works shared with the works of o t h e r great minds
H c n c e f o r ~ a r d the namc 1s a b b r c v ~ a t c das
('
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V.
Roland Barthes avers that it is impossible t o study all t h e narratives within a genre. Hence he recommends a deductive procedure which
would help t o devise a "hypothetical model of description" (Sontag 253).
Such a method o f description what American linguists call 'theory,' will
help us t o study the different narrative species that "at once conform t o
and depart from the model"(253).
Victor Shklovrki has acknowledged
this tendency of different narrative species t o be "in
parallel with and
in opposition t o some model" ( q t d . in I t ~ t r o d v c t i o nt o P o e t i c s 2 3 ) .
Bakhtin also has pointed out this artistic feature. t i e writes:
The element o f the s o called reaction t o t h e foregoing literary style which is present in every new style is in its way
an inner polemic o r , s o t o speak, a hidden anti-stylization
of the other style. and often combines with an obvious parody
of that style. . .
.
For t h e prose artist t h e world is full of
t h e w o r d s o f other people, among which he orients himself
and for the specific characteristics o f which he must have a
keen e a r . ( P r o b l e m s of L)osroevsky's P o e t i c s 163-66)
All these observations show how new genres emerge and how the existing ones undergo evolution.
In t h e present century, t h e theory o f genre does not appear at t h e
centre of literary activities. Rene Wellek, in the following passage, points
out t h e reason for this:
.
. . in t h e practice o f almost all writers o f o u r time g e n r e
distinctions m a t t e r little: boundaries a r e being constantly
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transgressed. genres combined o r fused, old genres discarded
o r transformed, new g e n r e s created t o such an extent that
the very concept has been called in doubt. (L)iscriminatiotis
225)
In his ltitroductioti lo a la Literature h'at~taslique,Ivan Todorov
discusses the problems involved in t h e study o f literary genres. He observes that each literary w o r k "modifies t h e whole s e t of possibilities.
Each new work changes the species" ( q t d . in Structuralism in Literature
128)'
Sharing this view o f Todorov, Scholes avers that "literary study
must operate by proceeding from a set o f possibilities towards the individual work, o r from t h e work toward a set o f possibilities, which is,
in fact. a generic concept" ( 1 2 8 ) . T h e s e t w o different a p p r o a c h e s t o
literature represent t w o distinct generic concepts which he calls 'theoretical genres' and 'historical genres' respectively. Theoretical genres
a r e generic deductions from a general theory o f literature, and historical
genres are deductions based on the direct observation of literature. Hence
the traditional generic concepts such as lyric, epic, dramatic etc. are theoretical genres. "A major task o f poetics," according t o this theory, "is
t o work o u t t h e precise mesh between complex 'theoretical genres' and
the actual genres which we find in the world of literature" (128). In short,
Todorov suggests that the genres that we find in literary itistory must be
subjected t o an analytical study in t h e light of a coherent theory.
Scott himself anticipates the modern genre theories when he says.
"there may exist compositions which it i s d ~ f t i c u l tto assign precisely o r
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exclusively t o t h e one class o r the other; and which, in fact, partake of
the nature o f both" (qtd. in Dekker 21).
He had tried to classify works
o f t h e romance tradition by drawing a parallel between 'Temporal Romances' (Chivalric romances) and 'Spiritual Romances' (saints' legends).
There he comes very close t o the method of fictional analysis of Northrop
Frye.
He c o u l d a n t i c i p a t e Frye's m e t h o d by s u g g e s t i n g t h e i n t e r -
changeability o f "the monsters, dragons and enchantments" of temporal
romances and the "'ancient dragon himself' of spiritual romances" (Dekker
20). Scott's practice inspired many t o look at the modern prose romance
from a different perspective. Henrich Heine declared that "Scott's great
achievement was t o d o for the modern age what Cervantes had done for
Renaissance" ( 2 1 ) . "Calling a novel a 'historical romance,"'
Dekker
writes, "is t o direct attention t o its extraordinarily rich, mixed, and even
contradictory o r oxymoronic character" (26).
Scott had understood the
principle o f 'displacement' that forms the basis o f Frye's theoretical strategy.
The term 'historical,' when applied t o the novel, reminds us of a
roll of some great masters of literature--Scott, Manzoni, Hugo, Dumas,
Pushkin. Flaubert, Thackeray, Kingsley, Tolstoy, Cooper, Sienkiewicz e t
al
All historical novels of t h e first half o f t h e nineteenth century a r e
based on Scott's principles. Scott's historical writing has been a source
of ~ n s p i r a t i o nfor writers all over the world.
Is the historical romance a relic of the past? The twentieth century modern novel includes many eminent representatives of this g e n r e
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each of which "transcend t h e limitations o f qenre conventions" (Massie
3 9 ) . The historical novel o f t h e modern a g e shows t w o approaches for
t h e 're-creation' of the historical subject in t h e form of fiction--the one
which deals with 'grand politics' of a particular time, in a scrupulous way,
and the other which allows the reader a lot of freedom as if history were
a myth. To the former of these approaches belong the American writer
G o r e Vidal and t h e South African, Mary Kenault. Kenault, in her trilogy that deals with t h e story o f Alexander, a t t e m p t s t o give a scrupulous description of t h e disintegration of the empire, after t h e death o f
r
Wicked, a n d WillAlexander. Antony B u r g e s s ' s The K i r ~ ~ d o n(!/'the
iam Golding's trilogy, Riles of Passage, are other examples o f this type
of historical novel. Novelists like Robert Nye and John Banville, belong t o the second category o f historical novelists. Nye's i~blstqff((1976)
is this type o f novel which at o n c e pays h o m a g e t o S h a k e s p e a r e , and
presents "a comic portrayal of the waste land created by politics" (Massie
40)
John Banville's ('oppertricus (1987) and Kepler (1983) deal with
the birth o f modern science during t h e late Renaissance period. P e t e r
Vansi Hart's The Death of Robin H o o d (1981) and Parsifal (1988) deal
with t h e theme o f t h e persistence o f myths such a s t h e Green Man and
the Grail L.egend through t h e centuries.
Scott had his followers in India t o o .
In 1862, Bhudeb Mukherji
p o r t ~ a y c di n his Atrguriyuvittimay, Shivaji, t h e great national figure o f
India
This is believed t o be the first historical novel in India. Later,
k.
another Bengali writer, Bankim Cnandra Chatterji, pictured in his novels
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the wars between the Rajput kings and the imperial Muslim powers. His
L)trrgest~attdiniappeared in 1 8 6 5 .
Kerala, the southernmost s t a t e o f the Indian peninsula, could not
remain uninfluenced by this new tradition. All t h e major trends in Malavalam literature. during i t s early period, had been products o f its association with English literary tradition. P.K.Parameswaran Nair writes
in his book Malayala Sahitya Charitham: "Novel, short-story, drama,
essay. criticism, history, biography, travel accounts. autobiographies--all
these branches of the prose medium--are greatly indebted t o English literature" ( 122).
The first noteworthy experiment in Malayalam literature, in the area
of t h e novel, w a s m a d e by Appu N e d u n g a d i .
H o w e v e r , his b o o k ,
Ku,rdalotha ( 1 8 8 7 ) . c a n n o t b e said t o p o s s e s s all t h e f e a t u r e s o f t h e
genre. The next important contribution t o the novel from Malayalam literature was Chandu Menon's I~idulekha(1888). This social novel brings
o u t and criticizes many evils o f t h e society during i t s time o f production. Another important work of Chandu Menon was the incomplete social
novel. Sarada. C.V. was influenced by the tradition o f S c o t t . The following remark establishes his indebtedness t o S c o t t :
Marthat~doVarma is w r i t t e n on t h e model o f S c o t t ' s historical novels, with the history o f a bygone age forming its
background.
( P a r a m e s w a r a n Nair, Malayala Sahithyu
Charithrarn 1 2 5 )
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In the "Preface" t o Marthanda Varma,' C . V . himself acknowledges
his indebtedness t o the English tradition.
He writes: "This book is written
with the intention o f creating in Malayalam a book on t h e model of the
English literary tradition known as historical romance" (52). Thus, C.V.'s
historical novels observe t h e tradition established by S c o t t .
MY. C.V.'s first historical novel that is based on the history o f
the state of Travancore, appeared in 1879
The novel deals with the po-
litical struggle between Marthanda Varn~ii,the prince, and his enemies.
The prince's enemies make a claim of the throne, on the strength of which
they conspire against him. The story e n d s with t h e suppression of t h e
prince's enemies. Twenty years later appeared his second historical novel,
Dharmarajah (1913) which is based on the history of the rule of Dharmarajah, t h e successor o f Marthanda Varma. The third novel, Rama R a j a
Bahadlrr ( 1 9 1 8 - 1 9 ) , d e a l s with a still l a t e r period in t h e history o f
Travancore, and the incidents o n the wake of Tippu Sultan's a t t a c k on
Travancore. In addition t o the novels of C.V., Malayalam literature had
a f e w m o r e significant w o r k s o f t h e tradition--Appan
Thampuran's
Bhoorharayar, Ambadi Narayana Pothuval's K e r a l a Purhran, T. Raman
Nambeesan's K e r a l e s w a r ~ ~K. . M . P a n i c k e r ' s Purtarkotttr S w a r o o p a m ,
P a r o t ~ k i p u d a y a l iet a 1 T h e period that immediately followed this was
a time of temporary setback for the historical novel. However, this period
w a s marked by t h e d e v e l o p m e n t o f t h e social novel. Many, like
A.
Balakrishna Pillai, openly criticized t h e poor literary quality of the Ma-
*
Henceforth this title is abbreviated as MV.
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layalarn novels o f this period, and introduced t o Malayalam readers and
wri!ers t h e m o d e r n E u r o p e a n w r i t e r s - - 8 a l z a c . M a u p a s s a n t , F l a u b e r t ,
Chekhov, lbsen e t a l . T h e changes in t a s t e s and t r e n d s that such criticism b r o u g h t a b o u t . led t o t h e birth o f a new t r a d i t i o n o f Malayalam
novel which found its best expression in t h e novels of Thakazhi, Kesava
Dev. Basheer. S . K . P o t t a k k a d u , P.C. Kuttikrishna M a r a r et al
Sir Walter S c o t t ' s lvanhoe ( 1 8 1 9 ) and C . V . R a m a n Pillai's MY
( 1 8 9 1 ) a r e popularly k n o w n a s historical r o m a n c e s . Ivanhoe i s s e t in
twelfth century England and MY in seventeenth century Travacore. Ivanhoe
deals with t h e following historical subject: T h e king o f England, Kich-
arc! t h e Lion-Hearted, on his way back h o m e from Palestine, a f t e r t h e
crusade, is made captive and imprisoned by t h e Austrian rulers. Later,
having escaped from Austria, he comes to his country only to see his throne
usurped by his b r o t h e r J o h n . H e lives in d i s g u i s e t o w a t c h t h e c r u e l ,
unjust and frivolous ways o f his brother. T h e conflict between t h e t w o
races, Saxons t h e natives and Normans t h e conquerors, forms t h e social
backdrop to t h e story. T h e situation worsens when King John begins t o
help t h e Normans in t h e conflict. Living in disguise, Richard a t t e m p t s
t o relieve t h e tension between t h e t w o races, and c o n t r o l s t h e ways o f
his brother. In t h e end, in a decisive conflict, t h e king s u p p r e s s e s his
o p p o n e n t s , and establishes p e a c e and harmony b e t w e e n t h e t w o r a c e s .
Scott's picture o f t h e Middle Ages d o e s not overlook t h e licentiousness
and corruption among t h e clergy in that period. S c o t t presents all these
evils in his book from the standpoint o f a social critic
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L.ike Scott, C . V ' s
main source o f inspiration was history. tlis M I . that appeared about sixty
five years after t h e publication o f I v a t l h o r , d r a w s its historical subject
from t h e eighteenth century history o f Travancore, concentrating o n t h e
theme o f political turbulence following t h e death o f Rama Varma Maharaja, t h e then k i n g o f T r a v a n c o r e .
In a n a t m o s p h e r e o f v i o l e n c e a n d
conspiracv, Prince Marthanda Varma, t h e successor o f t h e deceased king
(by t h e svstem o f 'marumakkathayam' which makes t h e king's n e p h e w
t h e next successor t o t h e t h r o n e ) , by living in disguise. e s c a p e s t h e attempts on his life, and finally succeeds in es+ablishiny peace and harmony
in t h e s t a t e by eliminating all his enemies. All t h e three historical novels o f C . V . - - M I . . , D h a r m a r a j a h , and Kama R a j a tiahadur-- deal with t h e
history o f the same dynasty. Similarity may be found in their events, subplots. c h a r a c t e r s and a l s o in their narrative techniques.
A comparison
o f ivatrhoe and MI.' r e v e a l s t h a t b e t w e e n t h e
t w o w o r k s t h e r e is much c o r r e s p o n d e n c e
U that is neither
slisht nor casual. Both deal with chivalry ( o f course there are cultural
differences), a n d they
settings
have much
similarity tjetween them in their
B o t h s t o r i e s begin with e x p o s i t o r y d e s c r i p t i o n s o f f o r e s t s
( S h e r h a m w o o d s in Ir-utthoe and Kalliyam C a d u in MV) that a r e strikinsly similar
In both b o o k s t h e fictional heroes--1vanhoe o f S c o t t and
Anantha Pathmanabhan o f C.V. --are wounded in similar mysterious circumstances, and they appear in disguise. In each work the fictional hero
c o m e s to t h e r e s c u e o f t h e historical h e r o f r o m a very critical situation
For Ivatlhor's important women fictional characters, Rowena and
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R e b e c c a , in ML', t h e r e a r e f i c t i o n a l e q u i v a l e n t s in P a r u k k u t t y a n d
S u b h a d r a . 'The o r d e a l s o f t h e heroines a r e similar in t.he t w o s t o ries. In Ivarrhoe D e Bracy e n t e r s Rowena's chamber and offers t o make
her his wife. A s a parallel t o this, in MC'.S r e e Pathmanabhan Thampi
e n t e r s P a r u k k u t t y ' s r o o m a n d w o o s her.
who is the father o f Ivanhoe. in
For C e d r i c , t h e S a x o n noble
My there is Thirumukhathu Pillai, Anantha
Pathmanabhan's father. For the theme of lvanhoe's disinheritance which
r e s u l t s in h i s l e a v i n g h o m e , in C . V . ' s n o v e l , t h e r e is t h e m y s t e r i o u s
disappearance of Anantha Pathmanabhan, here he is believed t o be d e a d .
Both novels are profuse in nocturnal adventures o f their heroes and others.
C V ' s Hakkim i s a fictional equivalent f o r S c o t t ' s Jew--Isaac o f York.
In b o t h n o v e l s t h e r e i s t h e t h e m e o f w o n d e r f u l c u r e o f w o u n d s .
In
I~ut~hou
it , is Rebecca, Isaac's d a u g h t e r , w h o t r e a t s and nurses t h e fictional h e r o back t o health; whereas. in C . V . , it i s Hakkim himself w h o
p e r f o r m s t h e magic o f c u r e . When Rebecca. Isaac's daughter, feels an
inexpressible love f o r Ivanhoe. Sulekha, Hakkim's niece, loves t h e tictional hero, Anantha Pathmanabhan. When Scott introduces Jews a s money
lenders, the Muslim family o f Hakkim a r e introduced a s merchants. Like
Isaac the Jew w h o is an avaricious money lender, C . V . ' s Hakkim is "not
satisfied with t h e money h e has; he desires t o make more o f it by doing
business" (ML72 1 5 ; C h . 1 6 ) .
For the theme o f wonderful archery ex-
hibited bv Locksley in Ivarrhoe. in C.V.'s novel t h e r e is similar performance by Chulliyil C h a d a c h i M a r t h a n d a Pillai. In place o f t h e massive o a k o f t h e S h e r w o o d f o r e s t in ivanhoe, in MV, t h e r e i s t h e mas-
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sive Jack tree that shelters the prince. T h e final siege is a common feature
of t h e s e b o o k s . In e a c h work t h e c o u n t e r p a r t o f t h e hero's chivalry is
t h e chastity of t h e h e r o i n e . Referring t o t h e parallel b e t w e e n lvanhoe
and MI', Kainikara Kumara Pillai writes in his preface to C V ' s Hamaraja
BahuJlrr:
C V ' s first novel, Marthartda l a r m a had similarities t o t h e
novels o f S c o t t , especially t o Jvumhoe
But this similarity
is found only in t h e conception o f plot
Here, he presents
an atmosphere. life and characters that are exclusively Keralite
It d o e s not have t h e arid and s t a l e emptiness t h a t i s
commonly found in artificial imitations
I t s political and
social s e t t i n g h a s t h e s t a m p o f , r u t h and reality
The ap-
pearance. t r a i t s and behaviour o f his c
Indian. ( 1 9 )
Language is no man's personal property, it i
,
has t h e right t o use whichever units o f language h e
it is o f immense critical interest, when t h e work o f a writer acknowledges
t h e 'imprint o f previous u s a g e . '
Such 'imprints' and relations between
w o r k s , w h e t h e r a c k n o w l e d g e d o r n o t , a r e e n c o m p a s s e d by t h e t e r m
intertextuality. Cases o f intertextuality may be fognd at the level of theme,
~ d e o l o g yand language
Hence i t is only reasonable t o consider literary
relations from t h e point o f view o f intertextuality. T h e r e are c a s e s of
"extended intertextuality" and "restricted intertextuality." In the formor
c a s e t h e relationship would b e b e t w e e n a work and w o r k s o f different
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."
,
authors. and in the latter case the relationship would be between a work
and o t h e r s by t h e same a u t h o r ( Evans 6 7 - 1 1 8 ) .
K . K . Ruthven, in his book C r i t i c a l Assumptions q u o t e s t h e followrne remark by Johnson. "Modern writers a r e the moon o f literature,
they shine with reflected light borrowed from the ancients" (25).
Here
Ruthven is not speaking disparagingly of the writers who shine "with light
borrowed from the ancients,"
rather, he seems t o share t h e following
view o f Dryden on t h e idea o f imitations:
We ought not t o regard a g o o d imitation a s theft, but a s a
beautiful
idea of him w h o undertakes t o imitate, by form-
ing himself on t h e invention and work o f another man; f o r
he enters in t o the list like a new wrestler, t o dispute the
prize with the former champion. This sort of emulation, says
Hesiod. is honorable, 'this strife is wholesome t o men,' when
w e combat for a victory with a hero, and a r e not without
g l o r y e v e n in o u r o v e r t h r o w . T h o s e g r e a t men whom w e
p r o p o s e t o ourselves a s patterns o f o u r imitation s e r v e u s
a s a torch. which is lifted u p b e f o r e u s t o enlighten o u r
passage; and often elevate o u r thoughts a s high a s the conception we have o f o u r author's genius. ( q t d i n Rulter a n d
Alastor, 7i)prcs in C r i l i c i s m )
The historical novel is generally corrsidered a s a distinct g e n r e
because of the new feeling o r attitude it embodies towards the past. But
manv critics. to name a few, Lukacs, Ricoeur, Dekker et al. have ques-
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tioned
this kind of generic d i v i s i o n s 3 Scott himself was very suspi-
cious about t h e p o w e r s o f historiography, and this s u s p i c i o u s view o f
historiography is the hallmark of his historicism. His antiquarian researches
were not a means t o excavating t h e dry bones o f antiquity, but t o make
it lovely and beautiful with the help of his creative imagination
Harold
A Basilius e x p r e s s e s t h e same view on Feuchtwanger's conception o f
history and historicism:
.
. . history and historiography are wish projections of cer-
tain periods, and cultures, and individuals. There is no such
thing a s authentic, objective, scientific history. The historicism o f the nineteenth century w a s an illusion, n o w q u i t e
generally
abandoned
even
by
academic
historian's.
(Feuchtwanger 7)
The a d v e n t o f a c o m m o n t h e o r y f o r b o t h history and l i t e r a t u r e
offered by narratologists obliterates t h e distinction between history and
fiction. Laurence Learner writes : "Historical reality is only a special
case o f fiction, a s speech is a special case o f writing, sexual intercourse
a special c a s e o f masturbation, and n a t u r e a special c a s e o f c u l t u r e . "
(Learner 12). Learner again writes:
. .
.
if w e read a life o f Napoleon, who really lived, and
a novel about Julien Sorel, who didn't. we can ignore that
difference and study the t w o discourses: if there is no transcendental signified, no origirlary source of the trace, then
t h e r e is no real111 in which N a p o l e o ~ l e x i s t s and Julierl
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doesn't, for such a realm would be tlie hors-text
which
Derrida denies. Both charactors are signifieds on the text
on which they depend, and il'wc grant a different ontological status t o Napoleon, that is because we handle this case
in a different way. The historical is a special c a s e of fictional. ( 1 2 )
The traditional criticism of the historical novel centres around questions like what constitutes realism in the historical novel, and how can
many fictitious events be called historical. If we share the view of Learner,
that "the historical is a special case o f fictional" t h e question o f historical-fictional distinction ceases t o be significant in the study of the historical novel. Then what else has t o be sought after in it? John Frow, in
his book Marxism a t ~ dLiterary History. p r o p o s e s that "for a literarytheoretical study, the best angle o f approach is through
Lukacs's
con-
ception o f genre" ( 9 ) . For Lukacs t h e a r t o f t h e novel is a p r o c e s s of
'discoverv' which is, f o r him, "a dialectic of form giving and mimesis"
which is "a rule governed activity" (Bernstein xx). This activity is structured by a subject/object dualism which manifests itself in t h e novel
a s the distinction between narrative and narration: between story and
its telling. In literary theory this problem is most often dealt with in
terms o f "questions relating t o , for example, point o f view, first person narration versus omniscient narrators and the like" (Bernstein xxi).
It is this dualism that forms the basis o f t h e distinction between 'content' and 'achieved content:
March Schorer writes in his article "Tech-
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nique as Discovery:"
"The difference between content, or experience,
and achieved content, or art, is technique" (Scholes, Approaches lo
the Novel 141). For him, the technique is the means t o express the
content. This view does not approve of the practice of reading the novel
as though the content were primary and the technique only of secondary importance. This has been a problem for literary critics from the
time of Aristotle onwards. This aspect of fiction is generally identified as mimesis. which Victor Skhlovsky calls defan~iliarization. He writes:
Habitualization devours objects, clothes, furniture, one's
wife, and the fear of war. . . . Art exists t o help us recover the sensation of life; it exists to make us feel things,
to make the stone stony.
The end of art is t o give a sen-
sation of the object as seen, not as recognized. The technique of art is to make things 'unfamiliar,' to make forms
obscure, so as to increase the difficulty and the duration of
perception. (qtd. in Scholes, Srructurulism in Literature
83-84)
Shklovsky is of the view that 'defamiliarization' is the fundamental
technique of mimetic art. and that it is the primary justification for its
existence. By defamiliarization he means the technique o f fiction such
as point-of-view, style, plotting, or rearrangement of story events and such
other fictional means that are used, in such a way that conventions are
put to test and techniques generate counter techniques.
Lukacs's theory of genres operates on two levels--the temporal
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order that gives meanings t o experience, and those faatures of the novel
that remain stable in s p i t e o f t h e variations o f c o n t e n t . When w e a r e
conscious about the 'form' w e notice also deviatiorls from those formal
norms leading t o t h e development o f s u b - g e n r e s
t i e calls t h e ~ r o v e l
'temporal adventure' because t h e various elements of the narrative create the impression o f 'empirical life,' only when they a r e 'schematized'
in a temporal order. T h i s arrangement o r schematization is "form-giving" (Bernstein 109).
Francois J o s t , in h i s Introduction t o Comparative Literature,
mentions four important approaches o f comparative literature: study o f
'organic affinities' between works, influence studies, study of analogies
between works, and the study of cultural, philosophical, sociological and
linguistic aspects (viii). This dissertation that aims at a "re-examination
and re-evaluation" of the historical romance, and attempts t o show how
the historical romance emerged a s a genre, and how it underwent evolution. makes use of all the approaches that Jost mentions in
his theory.
It compromises "analyses o f literary works from the point o f v i e w o f
their inner and o u t e r forms, their genre" ( J o s t viii). H e r e t h e g e n r e
is subjected t o a study in t h e light o f literary theory: it is concerned
with a s p e c t s o f literature, such a s form, genre, style, and technique.
Application o f theory on novels may appear unilluminating because the
process demands t h e e x c l u s i o n o f many a s p e c t s o f t h e t h e o r y while
concentrating o n a few. However, it should be kept in mind that this
principle o f exclusion is an important and unavoidable principle when
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judging the quality o f a w o r k .
This comparative study attempts t o bring out the correspondences
between Scott and C.V. mainly a t the level of the fictional and narrative
modes of their w o r k s and t o show that under t h e seeming lack of form
of the nineteenth century historical romance, of which lvurrhoe is a typical
representative work, lies hidden, a formal and structural similarity which
contributed much for t h e development of t h e modorn novel and its diversification in various directions. The study becomes relevant for t h e
fact that the many volumes o f narrative that belong t o this category have
not yet been studied from t h e perspective o f a s p e c t s such a s form and
structure. About t h e shift o f interest in English novel criticism from the
works o f modernity t o t h e w o r k s o f earlier period, Stanzel writes:
For some time, those critics of the novel interested in questions of form and structure occupied themselves chiefly with
works written with great formal consistency, such a s the
novels of t h e older James o r those of Faulkner, Hemingway,
Virginia Woolf and of course o f Joyce. Recently, however,
critics o f t h e novel interested in t h e theoretical a s p e c t s o f
form and structure are turning their attention more and more
t o w a r d t h e 'large l o o s e baggy monsters,' a s James o n c e
called the great Victorian novels, which at first glance seem
sa lacking in form. . . . there a r e indications that under t h e
seeming lack o f form of s o many Victorian novels a formal
and structural regularity lies hidden which has not yet been
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studied sufficiently. ( A Theory of Literature 6 3 )
These words of Stanzel apply also t o the major perspectives of the present
study.
Chapter two, of this work "Wherein Are the Origins?" traces the
genesis and evolution of the historicat romance and its gradual growth
by drawing selectively from history, adding to it more and more realism,
still maintaining its affinities with the old romance tradition. The chapter also traces Scott's career and the way he and his genre influenced
other practitioners of prose fiction. Chapter three, "The Tradition Parades: Scott and C.V.." attempts a comparison of Scott and C.V. on the
basis of their major fictional strategies. Here the focus would be mainly
on their representative works, Ivanhoe and M E
This chapter sets the
backdrop for the chapters that follow by highlighting certain important
aspects o f the fictional practice of Scott and C.V. Chapter four, "Towards a Theory of Fictional Modes," examines the two novels in the light
o f the theories o f Frye, Scholes et a l . 'I'he chapter also critically examines Scholes's theory, and attempts t o show how it fails to accommodate Scott's "mixed," "oxymoronic" fiction. Chapter five, "The Staples
o f a Tradition: Narrative Modes Compared," searches into the novels for
their dominant narrative modes and techniques, and for the manner in
which, in them, various 'conceptual forms' are transformed into 'achieved
c o n t e n t . Chapter six, "Do the Fictional Clocks Differ?" examines the
"temporal reorganization" o f the novels and the dominant 'time shapes'
in them. The study also reveals how Scott's interesting formula comes
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under a t t a c k and modification from his successor, C . V . Raman Pillai.
This work devotes comparatively much greator space t'or the work
o f Sir Walter S c o t t than it allows for the work of' ( : . V , because in t h e
study o f the historical romance genre. S c o t t , t h e o ~ i y i n a t o ro f t h e tradition, and his w o r k , r e q u i r e g r e a t e r attenion than what is given t o a n y
other writer o r his work. While pursuing the progression of t h e genre one
can look at C . V . only in t h e c o n t e x t o f S c o t t and his w o r k .
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Notes
'
Historical
poetics i s concerned
mainly with genre studies.
See lvan Todorov's I~troductionto Poetics, trans. Richard Howard (Sussex: T h e Harvester Press L t d . , 1981).
* lvan Todorov, Introduction
a l a i,irfera/iire F a n l a s l i q ~ ~(Paris:
e
Seuil, 1970) trans. by Richard Howard and published by the Case Western
Reserve Press in 1973. ( R o b e r t Scholes q u o t e s from t h i s b o o k in his
Structurulism in Literature ( New Haven and London: Yale UP, 1974)
128).
' The t e x t s alluded
t o a r e G e o r g Lukacs, ?'he Historical Novel
(Middlesex: Penguin Books. 1962); Paul Ricoeur, li'me and Narrative
( 3 vols.. Chicago & London: The University o f Chicago Press, 1984);
Georg Dekker. 7'he American Historical Homunce (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1987).
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