Kamala das as a confessional poet. Can Kamala Das be called as a “confessional” poet? 2022-10-07
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Kamala Das, also known as Madhavikutty, was a confessional poet who wrote openly and candidly about her personal experiences and emotions. She is considered one of the most prominent figures in Indian English poetry, and her work is characterized by its honesty, vulnerability, and willingness to confront taboo subjects.
Das was born in 1934 in Kerala, India, and grew up in a conservative Hindu household. She was married at the age of 15 and went on to have three children, but she struggled with the constraints of traditional gender roles and the expectations placed on her as a wife and mother. In her poetry, Das often wrote about her desire for independence and her frustration with the limitations placed on her as a woman.
One of the most notable aspects of Das's poetry is its confessional nature. She wrote openly and candidly about her personal experiences, including her relationships, her sexuality, and her struggles with mental illness. Her poetry is raw and emotional, and it often touches on themes of loss, loneliness, and the search for self-identity.
In addition to writing about personal experiences, Das also explored themes of gender and sexuality in her poetry. She was one of the first Indian writers to openly discuss issues of sexuality and desire, and her work helped to challenge traditional views of femininity and masculinity in India.
Despite the controversial nature of her work, Das was a highly respected and influential figure in Indian literature. She received numerous awards and accolades for her poetry, and her work has been translated into several languages. Today, she is remembered as a pioneering confessional poet who bravely explored themes of personal experience and identity in her writing.
Discuss about Kamala Das as a Confessional poet with reference to her poems
She deals with the issues of the social, cultural and religious significance and talks about the rights of women. . Today the Indian woman is as liberated as her counterpart in Britain and the U. Kamala Dads' poems voice not only her own resentment against her husband but, by implication, the resentment of other women who find themselves in a similar predicament. It is also tempting to read her poems from the psycho-analytical point of view and interpret then as expression of a schizoid personality. It is time to Choose a name, a role. Her autobiography gives ample evidence to her idea of death by water, drowning oneself in the sea.
Her poems paint a disgustful picture of her husband. The relevant passage reads thus; Often I have toyed with the idea of drowning myself to be rid of my loneliness which is not unique in any way, but is natural to all. A Hot Noon in Malabar This is a noon for beggars with whining Voices, a noon for men who come from hills With parrots in a cage and fortune-cards, All stained with time, for brown Kurava girls With old eyes, who read palm in light singsong Voices, for bangle-sellers who spread On the cool black floor those red and green and blue Bangles, all covered with the dust of roads, Miles, grow cracks on the heels, so that when they Clambered up our porch, the noise was grating, Strange … This is a noon for strangers who part The window-drapes and peer in, their hot eyes Brimming with the sun, not seeing a thing in Shadowy rooms and turn away and look So yearningly at the brick-ledged well. I was child, and later they Told me I grew, for I became tall, my limbs Swelled and one or two places sprouted hair. . The confessional poets deal in their poetry with personal emotional experiences which are generally taboo. For woman, a partner is essential in sex-drama, Just as she is essential for her husband in a life of real enjoyment.
kamala Das’ Candid Attitude: Kamala Das As A Confessional Poet
She is a confessional poet, whose poems are compared with Robert Lowell, Sexton, and Sylvia Plate etc. They wanted to be unique and not a part of the conventional social set up. Just because of this she could not reconcile with anyone else. The poem Glass states clearly that finding no emotional identity or satisfaction with her husband, she is driven into others' arms: I entire other's Lives, and Make of every trap of lust A temporary home Dads Behind the back of her husband, Dads discovers her own ways of finding love. Expression of mother The last lines of the poem depict the violation inflicted upon the girl. You dribbled spittle into my mouth.
Why is Kamala Das known as a confessional poet? Is it because she wrote about personal matters in her poetry?
She mentions in My Story " Before I left for Calcutta, my relative her future husband pushed me into a dark corner behind a door and kissed me sloppily near my mouth. In My Story she has expressed her romantic ideas of an ideal lover. She accuses her husband of having been a selfish and cowardly man who neither loved her nor used her properly but who was a ruthless watcher of her sexul act with other men. I wanted conversation, companionship and warmth. A good place to start would be Das's poem called, "An Introduction. Her frank admissions and bold treatment of private life have nothing exceptional about them and are perfectly in keeping with the natures and themes of the confessional poets.
Can Kamala Das be called as a “confessional” poet?
As there is a lot of autobiographical element in her work. Here, once again, Kamala Das is protesting against the attitude of lovers who seem to be fervent and passionate in their love-making but who actually feel no love at all for the women with whom they perform the sexual act. I am sinner, I am saint. There could be no better way of tribute to Kamala than publishing and sharing her work. However, a great confessional poet, like Kamala Das, achieves impersonality of poetry. Each fragment of her poetry is grasped with the thought of femininity. Summary Of Anita Desai's Cry The Peacock 4805 Words 20 Pages Anita Desai 's first novel, Cry, The Peacock, softened new ground up Indian English fiction and is said to be a pioneer.
The language I speak, Becomes mine, its distortions, its queernesses All mine, mine alone. And we asked each other, what is The use, what is the bloody use? Radha in this poem represents the spirit of surrender which is the very first step towards spiritual evolution. She did experience the gratification of her sexual desire at the time but she felt disappointed by the lack of any love or affection for her in his heart. Sushila Singh New Delhi : Prestige Books: 1991 ,1975. She shares everything with her readers, good and bad, about her life with all the secrets that should not be openly expressed in her society. Among her contemporaries she is much debated, disputed and criticized poet.
CONFESSIONAL MODE IN THE POETRY OF KAMALA DAS AND SYLVIA PLATH
I am the beloved and the Betrayed. Kamala Dad's shocking confession about the theme of love has startled equally the critics and the laymen. Love is complex, many-splendored feeling. These two women responded in a similar way to similar themes. I feel forced to be honest in my poetry. She had tried her utmost to please her sexual partners by clinging to their hairy chests, but they all told her that they could only gratify her sexual desire but could not love her. Her experiences are common and ordinary in fact them, she insists, is separate and unique.
10 Poems by Kamala Das, Confessional Poet of India
Kamala Dads was hated and criticized by many people for doing an exceptional thing for an Indian woman, she becomes very successful. Sex was far from my thoughts. She appeared to be a puppet, the strings of which being held firmly by her parent she wasn't given a free choice to select an ideal lover. She is one of the modernist writers to assert her femininity as a human in Indian literature; she has been something of a cult figure in her home state and a source of great inspiration and emulation for women with literary aspiration. The search for ideal love is continued throughout her poetry. Dress in sarees, be girl Be wife, they said.
Maternity and Body — Maternal Politics and Romanticism Themes like adolescent changes and pregnancy, labour and child-birth, lactation and nurturing, caring and child-rearing, are recurrent themes related to the biological aspects of motherhood, in the poems written by women. She was not educated enough to get a good Job and live independently. The relevant passage reads thus; Often I have dyed with the idea of drowning myself to be rid of my loneliness which is not unique in any way, but is natural to all. The streak of sunshine which fell at the doorstep looked like a yellow cat, keeping her company a day. Thus dissatisfied in married life, the woman is unconsciously drawn towards illicit relationship in search of pure and true love. The sensitive poem cannot take failure for granted.
