Contemporary Indian Poetry in English

248 Pages·2016·0.809 MB·English

by  Jaydip Sarkar Shirsendu Mondal

Contemporary Indian Poetry in
English

Contemporary Indian Poetry in
English
Jaydip Sarkar
Shirsendu Mondal
Worldwide Circulation through Authorspress Global Network
First Published in 2015
by
Authorspress
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Contemporary Indian Poetry in English
ISBN 978-93-5207-113-5
Copyright © 2015 Jaydip Sarkar & Shirsendu Mondal
Disclaimer
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced in any form without the written permission
of Jaydip Sarkar & Shirsendu Mondal, the authors.
Printed in India at Krishna Offset, Shahdara
Preface and Acknowledgement
Indian English Poetry has come a long way. By now it is certainly
not isolated poetry written in a niche language by a small group
of ‘privileged’ writers. It is also not instance of poetic writings
significant only for studying as part of University syllabi. Indian
English Poetry has achieved the necessary excellence to deserve
the legitimate space both within the canon and without. And in
comparison with Indian English fiction, poetry written in English
by Indian writers has had to struggle for recognition. Although
this present volume of essays on post-independence poets have
been generated primarily out of academic interest, the sense of
wonder, attendant upon the joy of reading poetry is never lost.
It is rightfully observed that apart from a few select
repertoires, there is marked absence of comprehensive critical
approaches on Indian English poetry. The gap is being filled up
very rapidly though. For this reason and for the fact that books
on IEP are still less than sufficient, a new book on the subject is
still not considered tautological. This present volume, we hope,
would not be treated as just another volume adding to the long
list of similar books. Without sounding too ambitious, the volume
at least has attempts a lot more than mere paraphrasing of the
poems. The essays concentrate upon bringing out the distinctive
voice of the individual poets through an in-depth study of the
thematic and textual concerns. The basic objective is to illustrate
6  Contemporary Indian Poetry in English
the means of scholarly reception of the texts and to situate them
within the broadening horizon of literary-cultural theory. The
content has been decidedly kept at an accessible level, keeping
in view the requirements of the Graduate and Postgraduate
students and the same line of thinking is reflected on the thrust
areas chosen for discussing individual poets. We have tried to
include lesser known poets in the collection and would have been
happier if more poets, representing every distinct category could
have been accommodated. We hope that the book would not be
a failure if not entirely successful.
We take this opportunity to offer our sincere thanks to all
of our contributors, who responded to our call for papers for
this book and never lost their patience when the process of
publication got delayed. We owe our thanks also to our colleagues,
who have always been enthusiastic about the present publication
and proved helpful in many ways.
We heartily thank Mr. Sudarshan Kcherry of Authorspress
for his initiative in publishing the book.
1st July, 2015 Jaydip Sarkar
Shirsendu Mondal
Contents
Preface and Acknowledgement 5
1. Indian English Poetry: A Very Brief History 11
PINAKI ROY
Exiled at Home, Alone in the World
2. Memory, Exile and Loneliness in the Poetry of
Agha Shahid Ali 33
DHRUBA BANERJI
3. The Art of Critical Love: Nissim Ezekiel’s Modes
of Belonging 42
ABIN CHAKRABARTI
4. Moving Spaces in the Culture Carnival:
Historiography of the Hybrid in the
Private Poetics of A.K.Ramanujan 54
RAJADIPTA ROY
5. Dilip Chitre: The Exploration of the Self and Reality 65
SIDDARTH SYANGDEN
6. Broken Narratives of Diasporic Sensibility:
A Study of Sujata Bhatt’s Poems 76
JAYDIP SARKAR
8  Contemporary Indian Poetry in English
Of Gods and Other Demons
7. Vulnerable Gods and Post-Godly Faiths:
A Reading of Arun Kolatkar’s Selected Poems 91
RAHUL NARAYAN KAMBLE
8. The Early Poetry of Keki N Daruwalla 102
SHIRSENDU MONDAL
9. “More faith in Honest Doubt”—Sensuality,
Religiosity and More: A Critical Analysis of
Nissim Ezekiel’s Latter-Day Psalms. 114
JOY MUKHERJEE
Poet as Caftsman
10. “Variants of Variations”:
The Poems of Vikram Seth 139
MELANIE HYDERI
11. Of Apollonian and Dionysian Craft:
Ramanujan’s ‘Method’ and Surendran’s Madness in
Poetic Expression 151
TUHINSANYAL AND BIPRADIP SAHA
12. “The Morning Light Creaks Down Again’’:
Reconsidering the Two Morning-Poems of
R. Parthasarathy 181
KAUSTAV CHAKRABARTY
13. “Masterful Images” of Orissa vis-à-vis India:
A Critique of Jayanta Mahapatra’s Poetry 189
NITAI SAHA
Contents  9
The Woman Speaks
14. Feminist Quest for Emancipation:
A Reading of the Poems of Mamta Kalia 201
SUPRIYA DEBNATH
15. “Brave New World”— Kamala Das’s
Poetic World Revisited 218
NITAI SAHA
16. Women in Gender Asymmetry:
Eunice de Souza’s Poems 240
RAJIB BHAUMIK
Notes on the Contributors 247