Self Writing. Writing History

Abstract

Using a couple of examples of Life Writing published in the 19th century Andhra country, this presentation will try to explore how different individuals inscribe their selves into history even as they become witness to history.  I am picking up for detailed analysis two examples of life writing, Enugula Veeraswamy’s Kasiyatra Charitra (1838),  a journal or a travelogue (in Telugu), whichever way one prefers to see it, and an autobiography in English titled The Life of Vennelacunty Soob Row…(1873).  Both worked as translators and interpreters under the East India Company.  Though Veeraswamy’s travelogue was published earlier, and Soob Row’s autobiography was published posthumously many years later, the period both the texts cover, is the first half of the 19^th century.