analysis of nagamandala by giresh karnad
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A Text, as defined by Gerard Genette very minimally, ―is a more or less long
sequence of verbal statements that are more or less endowed with significance‖
(Paratext: Thresholds of Interpretation 1). Texts are parts of social events and the two
causal powers which shape texts include social structures and social practices on one
hand and social agents on the other. Further it is created by the peculiar use of language
which under the pressures of literary devices is intensified, condensed, twisted or turned
on its head (Eagleton 3). In this context, Norman Fairclough opines regarding the
functions of the text:
Functional approaches to language have emphasized the ‗multi-
functionality‘ of texts. Systemic Functional Linguistics, for instance,
claims that texts simultaneously have ‗ideational‘, ‗interpersonal‘ and
‗textual‘ functions. That is, texts simultaneously represent aspects of the
world (the physical world, the social world, the mental world); enact
social relations between participants in social events and the attitudes,
desires and values of the participants; and coherently and cohesively
connect parts of the texts together; and connect texts with their
situational contexts.