Write an essay on the poetic vision and style in the South Asian poetry that you have read.
South Asian literature in English has become a globally pronounced phenomenon. There is diversity in South Asian cultures which make South Asian Literature a broader genre. The diversity is based on the variations across the linguistic, religious, cultural and ethnic lines. Poetry is one of the major sub genres of South Asian literature. South Asian poetry in English began in the early nineteenth century in the Indian subcontinent. South Asian poetry in English represents the transnational and specific national paradigms. The following essay tends to analyze how South Asian poetry in English is stylistically and thematically multivalent. It also aims at exploring the ways in which the English language has been manipulated by the South Asian poets to depict their culture and issues.
Diasporic writers of South Asia have strong connections with the West, and that is why their writings reflect a blend of Eastern and Western traditions. When we study South Asian poetry in English, our journey of reading passes through time, place and literary history by uncovering aspects of modernism, pastoralism, Victorian realism, Romanticism and ultimately reach a condition of permanent dislocation. The condition of permanent dislocation is experienced by diasporic writers. The world of an immigrant poet is a nowhere place because they continuously suffer from identity crises in the host land and in the homeland and their voices speak of anxiety and alienation.
The themes of South Asian poetry mostly revolve around politics, power-dynamics, social factors, homesickness, sufferings of the natives, oppression, suppression, identity crisis, concept of third-space, revolt against patriarchy, objectification of women and marginalization of the weaker. For stylistic and thematic analysis of South Asian poetry in English, we can have examples of various South Asian poets writing in English. Among the South Asian poets writing in English are Agha Shahid Ali, Kamala Das, A. K. Ramanujan and Taufiq Rafat.
Writing is an extremely difficult task and has been regarded primarily as a male territory. The act of writing for a woman is essentially an act of breaking her silence because her repressive patriarchal and racial society has taught her to be culturally silent (“Aspects of Contemporary Post/Colonial Literature” 130). This silence has been broken by a South Asian poet, Kamala Das, who talks about Third World women. Kamala Das is a feminist poet who talks about the plight of the oppressed women. Das’ poetry is very interesting from the viewpoint of the identity of a woman. The hitherto premises of male hegemony are violently shaken by Kamala Das who can defy the conventional ideological discourse of sexism and love (Bhattacharjee p. 1). In her poem “The Maggots”, Das alludes to Hindu mythology and thus shows how a woman becomes an object for a man and is defined through a patriarchal discourse. She says in “The Maggots”,
“What is it to the corpse
if the maggots nip” (Das)
The above lines show that the feelings and emotions of a woman are considered to be inessential by male. Simon De Beavoire believes that a woman is treated as the Other by a man so that she becomes a Mirror image reflection of himself. Das articulates for the rights of Third world women by participating in a political act of writing. Kamala Das takes an agency and talks of such themes that are multivalent. She talks about those entities that are marginalized and pushed to the periphery by the phallocentric society. In her poem, “The Old Playhouse'', Das shows how gender relations become power relations. A woman does not have a sense of ipseity, as stated by Derrida. The main aim of Das is to show the world that the nature of a woman resists any kind of constraint or fixity that is imposed by man. The transposition of the seasons in her poems correlates with the alteration of the inner landscape of a woman. Her poems are full of symbolic imagery and metaphorical representations of women. She uses metaphors like “swallow”, “corpse”, and “dwarf” to define the marginalized and neglected status of a woman in patriarchal society (The Old PlayHouse 1). In her poem “The Dance of the Eunuchs'', Das talks about the objectification of the eunuchs. Eunuchs are constructed as women and thus defined by the normative rules. Kamala Das, like Julia Kriesteva, brings the concept of abjection to the spotlight and says how these eunuchs are treated as erotic objects. She protests against the inhumane treatment of the eunuchs. Yet in her other poem “Punishment in Kindergarten”, Kamala Das shows the marginalization of children. Das shows how children are divided into cells which are known as Cellular individuality. Children are scolded and suppressed by their teachers.
The themes of Kamala Das are mostly about marginalization, suppression, objectification and sufferings of the weaker entities. Her style is verbose and energetic. Her employment of English language as a medium of expression gives her voice multivalency. That a large part of the South Asian Subcontinent remained under the control of the British for a long period of time, With the impact of colonialism, the boundaries of the genre have been expanded. The British came to the Subcontinent as colonizers. They exercised hegemony through the medium of language. They tried to melt British culture into local Indian culture. Indians were given access to the western modes of knowledge and technology. The British conspiracy was based upon Macaulay’s recommendation about producing a breed of people that would be “Indian in blood and color but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect”. The British imposed their culture and English language on the natives by means of power. The notion of acculturation produced a breed of people who were “Indian in blood and color but English in taste”. English became the language of power. As the British were in power, the Indian people were not in a position to directly retaliate against them. So, they used the language of colonizers as a weapon to launch resistance against them. During the colonial period, many renowned writers used the medium of English language to launch very explicit criticism against British imperialism by representing their unique and diverse culture.
Resistance and representation both go side by in the texts produced by South Asian poets in English. The writers represented the culture and traditions of their own land. At the same time they tried to resist the hegemonic powers by portraying the indigenous culture. As John Yang stated: “Resistance theory in post-colonial literature refutes the very notion that the idea of representation also connotes further subjugation. Resistance literature uses the language of empire to rebut its dominant ideologies. In other words, the colonized nation is "writing back," speaking either of the oppression and racism of the colonizers or the inherent cultural "better-ness" of the indigenous people.
During the Post-colonial era, the English language continued to enjoy privilege and dominance. Due to the imperial policies of the British, English language and English culture has been ingrained in South Asian society and we cannot discard this idea. As English is a dominant language, South Asian writers tried to penetrate into Western discourse to draw the attention of the audience across the globe. Globalization has also played an important role in the dominance of English, especially through media. The South Asian writers have modified the English language by incorporating their local images and local traditions. The English language is used in multiple domains and has acquired “shakti”. As English is working on the borderline of various cultures, therefore it is pluricentric. It allows the culture from one region to be absorbed and assimilated into the other. In this way, it enables the cross pollination of various cultures which results in the interchange of ideas and traditions.
The cross-cultural relationships across different regions erased the cultural differences. This gave rise to cultural hybridity. The cultural hybridity alludes to the interweaving of different cultures. The blend of various cultures results in cultural osmosis and diffusion. Outcomes of the hybridity are not just code mixing and code switching. The amalgamation between cultures results in a dynamically altered worldview. There is a rational mode of thinking in the West but there is an irrational mode of thinking in South Asian societies. When these two modes of thinking came together during the colonial period, they generated an alternative mode of thinking. This gave a global outlook to the world. So, we can say that colonialism is a precursor of globalization.
Kamala Das and Ramanujan have also contributed to incorporate their cultural insight into South Asian Poetry in English. In order to highlight the marginalization of women in a patriarchal society, Kamala Das has given reference to Hindu mythology by narrating the story of Radha and Krishna. So, she has employed local modes of expression in her writings.
The large part of South Asian poetry is produced by the Diaspora. After the Second World War when Great Britain opened its doors for the foreigners in order to get cheap labor there was a massive exodus from South Asia to abroad. People left their homelands to find better opportunities for their living in the host land. The poetry produced by the Diaspora carries multiple meanings and incorporates a vast array of themes. Their poetry displays amalgamation of different cultures absorbed from homeland and hostland. There is no cultural purity because of the impact of globalization. The English poetry of South Asians depicts their global outlook.
To conclude, the South Asian literature in English is very heterogeneous and diverse. Because of this diversity, the south Asian poetry in English is stylistically and thematically multivalent. South Asian poets of the English language have advantages of having access to the global audience. Trans-nationalism, hybridization and cultural translation is the key strength to the English poetry of South Asia. South Asian literature in English is filled with Native coloring and textures that result in the modification of English language. “South Asian literature is a colorful kaleidoscope of fragmented views, colored by the perceptions of its authors, reflecting myriad realities—and fantasies”. The employment of English language in the writings has played a very vital role in promoting South Asian literature. English language had gained power because of its usage in multiple domains and Macaulay’s legacy to use the medium of language to conquer the spirit of India has been succeeded. Due to the impact of colonization, globalization and diasporic experiences, there remains no cultural purity. There is cultural diversity and hybridity. The South Asian poets have manipulated the English language by incorporating their multi cultural traditions and customs. Therefore, the South Asian poets have taken English as a transnational language which provides a space for the “facilitation of economic and cultural globalization”. By using English as a medium of expression, the South Asian poets have depicted their unique and diverse culture and this aspect of South Asian poetry makes it stylistically and thematically multivalent.
