Language and intermedial metamorphoses in Indian literature and arts

Abstract

The relations between literature and other arts are multifarious, and manifest themselves differently in each case, enabling the emergence of fresh artistic expressions. By looking at language in "intermedial metamorphosis, " I argue that, in multilingual cultures, simultaneously united and separated by several factors, the transactions between language, culture, and the arts require a constant multiperspectivism as well as new enquiries that need to constantly alter language itself and its processes of intermedial transference into new, evolving literary/artistic idioms. The intermedial exchange between different arts entails transformations not only on the linguistic level, but also in terms of image selection, presentation, and performance, where culture-specific elements reshape the source themes and narrative devices towards a new architectonics. Moreover, in Indian culture, intermediality belongs to the inherent structure of various art forms, and is, in fact, as I call it, an epigenetic intermediality; it is a process leading to the creation of art forms containing performative elements which develop under epigenetic factors into complex intermedial structures. The article draws on examples from various Indian arts, such as the traditional patachitra performance, and Kathakali and other styles of dance-drama.