NEGOTIATING THE INTERPLAY OF BINARIES IN KARNAD’S THE DREAMS OF TIPU SULTAN

Abstract

Karnad, a renowned Indian writer, has attempted to revisit history to present an alternative narrative in The Dreams of Tipu Sultan. He has incorporated various binaries to depict human behavior and the relation between the colonizer and the colonized. The present study aims at exploring the binary constructions represented in the text employing the Saussurean idea of binary oppositions and their interplay within the text. The data have been extracted and analysed using the technique of Textual Analysis to look at the opposites and explore the way they have been constructed as interdependent to enhance the meaning of each other. This research finds that the writer has represented binaries to construct meaning within the play. Each binary contrasts the other while together they help in enhancing and clarifying the existing tensions and conflicts.