Abstract

‘Intertextuality’ was first used by Julia Christeva in 1966. It argues that no text is a closed text. Instead, texts created are connected and are inherently interactive in nature. Intertextuality in travel writing may be as old as travel writing, as travelers often gather information about destinations before setting off for their journyes. Japan enjoys a long history of travel writing, and travelogues and memoirs are indispensable to its vast literature. India has been a popular destination among Japanese travelers, traversing the land and its cities and penning their memoirs, a few of which become bestsellers. These writings have played an essential role in bringing the country closer to Japanese readers. The present paper will examine one such popular post-war Japanese travelogue called Midnight Express 深夜特急 (1986) by Sawaki Kōtarō. While drawing upon the theory of ‘intertextuality,’ the paper traces two major pre-existing travelogues, I Will Give Anything a Look 何でも見てやろう (1961) by Oda Makoto and Wandering India 印度放浪 (1972) by Fujiwara Shinya and examines the intertextual relations present in these writings. The study aims to analyze Midnight Express by placing it in the perspective of the preceding travel writings in the Japanese language and map the trajectory of the construction of the Indian image.

Keywords: Intertextuality, Intertextual relations, Japanese Travel Writing, Indian Image, Sawaki Kōtarō

Notes on Contributor
Centre for Japanese Studies, School of Language, Literature, and Culture Studies, Jawa
harlal Nehru University, India. E-mail: anushree.r29@gmail.com