Post modernistic reading of Ramanujan’s Poetry

Submitted to: Miss Momina

Submitted by: Hasina Niaz

Dated: 07-10-2019
Outline:

 Postmodernism
 Post modernistic reading of Ramanujan’s poems
 A counter narrative to Anthropocentrism (centre and periphery)
 Uses of new literary trends (Humour and Irony)
 Use of language and voice (cultural stance, syncretism, hybridity)
 Intertextuality
 Positionality
 Challenging Grand Narratives
 Blurring of old distinctions (binary oppositions)
 Conclusion
Understanding of Postmodernism

It is a late 20th century style and a concept in the arts, architecture, theology and criticism,
which represents a departure from modernism and is characterized by self-conscious use of
earlier styles and conventions, a mixing of different artistic styles and media, and a general
distrust of theories. It challenges the practices established by Modernists that are characterized
by a return to traditional materials and forms and by ironic reference and absurdity. It had
appeared in a complex political circumstances after the end of world war II. A new identity, new
characteristics and a new sense of direction came into being after postmodernism.

Post modernists think it as a new way of life. It is a very controversial topic. Different
critics have contradictory but sometimes overlapping views on it. So we cannot fix a single
definition to it. Fuchs defines postmodernism as “the ideology of a ‘new class’ of symbolic
workers who specialize in self-referential techniques for manipulating signs, images and multiple
layers of representation.” (Hossain and Karim 1)

Postmodern Reading of A.K Ramanujan’s Poems

Gosh says “Ramanujan is neither nostalgic nor an advocate of modernization and

westernization. He is a product of both and his poems reflect a personality conscious of change,
enjoying its vitality, freedom and contradictions, but also aware of memories which form his
inner self, memories of an unconscious ‘namelessness’, which are still alive, at the foundation of
the self.” (Karmakar 1)

In the cosmos of Indian English Poetry, he tenanted a vital position. The phrase ‘Indian
English Poetry’ accentuates the idea of syncretism that such poems constitute the essence of
Indianness but English in linguistic form. This type of cultural fusion is an element of
postmodernism. Being an Indian author he had a burden of Indian culture in his writings.
Bakhtin says “To speak means to be in a position to use a certain syntax, to grasp the
morphology of this or that language, but it means above all to assume a culture, to support the
weight of a civilization” (Innes 107)
 Culture is the part and parcel of a language. When we learn a language we are sucking to
all the aspects of that culture or it may at least adhere with some part of it. He through his poetry
gives Indian culture an Identity that how Indians have quest for roots in tradition and quest for a
higher self. When an author narrates something he is actually voicing his culture. Giving voice is
something like giving identity. Ramanujan’s Poem ‘A River’ also adheres some part of Indian
culture which may lead to Positionality. He shows Madurai city with traditional Tamil culture
(Karmakar 1). Cow is also shown in order to show the Indianness.

“and a couple of cows

named Gopi and Brinda as usual”

As a postmodern poet his poetry entails humour, irony and deconstructivism.

Deconstructivism is the fragmentation of constructed building characterized by unrhymed lines,
absence of symmetry and harmony. We can see such fragmentation in A.K Ramanujan’s both
poems ‘A River’ and ‘The Striders’. Humorous in a way when he mentions the identical twins
with coloured diapers so that to identify them.

“expecting identical twins

With no moles o their bodies

With different coloured diapers”

He also comments ironically when he names cows as Gopi and Brinda while humans are
mentioned unnamed.

Being a postmodern poet he is challenging the grand narratives where there were some
set rules and beliefs. In ‘A River’ when he names Gopi and Brinda he is talking about casual
beings which were ignored by previous narrators they used to centralize men and these things
were set at periphery. He is also criticizing the grand tradition that no one talked about dryness
but he does. He is adding more to the pregnant woman which is again a centralization of
common creatures which were disregarded in grand traditions. Pregnant woman becomes an
object of male gaze. Adding more and more to individuality he talks about the unborn child that
even the unborn child is plighted by the disaster. In the same way his counter narration to
Anthropocentrism is seen in poem ‘The Strider’ when he narrates Prophet hood of Jesus Christ.
Jesus had the miracle of water. He relates it to the insignificant bugs that by floating onto the
water they are also doing some miracles. The common man can also do such practices so to
attain prophet hood. His much focus is also on women who were considered as selfless creature
in past. He in his poem ‘A River’ mentions most of the time about women i-e pregnant women,
women hair, blank walls of uterus etc.

As a postmodern poet he narrates truth as a matter of perspective not an ultimate

extremity. It also cannot be universal for all the individuals. For instance, in his poem ‘The
Strider’ he refers to the Jesus’s miracle and concludes that it is an ultimate belief for Christians
not for the other masses. He alludes it as a very usual practice which can also be achieved by
every other man. In order to show this power of knowledge he has brought the example of
insects. Being a postmodern poet he is actually criticising the two set binaries in which one is
considered prophetic and the other a very casual one.

“Another issue that has become more prominent, because more complex than previously
regarded, is the issue of sacred. Religion, the impact of missions and the nature and function of a
‘post-colonial sacred’ are becoming increasingly prevalent in what some refer to as a ‘post-
secular age’.” (Ashcroft and Griffiths and Tiffin 9)

Following the post modernistic approach of intertextuality, he in his poem ‘The Strider’
talks about the very insignificant bugs which seems to refer to the Julia Kristeva’s concept of
‘abjection’ in which she proposed certain objects that there are certain kind of abject things in
our society which are always driven down and marginalized and brushed under the carpet.
Kristeva says “When I am beset by abjection, the twisted braid of affects and thoughts I call by
such a name does not have properly speaking, a definable object. The abject is not an ob-ject
facing me, which I name or imagine. Nor is it an ob-jest, an otherness ceaselessly fleeing in a
systematic quest of desire. What is abject is not my correlative, which, providing me with
someone or something else as support, would allow me to be more or less detached and
autonomous”.[ CITATION Jul82 \l 1033 ]

By reading Ramanujan’s poetry, one can have a belief in immense human possibilities.
He joins modern characteristics with the Indian sensibilities. He attempts to develop a link
between life and art. He had tried to explore Indian English poetry with new sensibilities of
individuality, literature, social sciences, globalization, philosophy etc. His poetry entails with the
post modernistic approaches in a true sense. K. Naik said about him: “In Poetic technique, of all
his contemporaries, Ramanujan appears to have the surest touch, for he never lapses into
romantic lapses into romantic cliché. His unfailing sense of rhythm gives a fitting answer to
those who hold that complete inwardness with language is possible only to be poet writing in his
mother tongue. Though he writes in poem forms, His verse is extremely, tightly constructed.”
( Karmakar 79)

Works Cited

Abdulazim, Elaati. "Postmodernism Theory." June 2016,

www.researchgate.net/publication/303812364. Accessed 7 Oct. 2019.

Ashcroft et al, Bill. Post-colonial Studies. 2nd ed., Routledge, 2000.

Innes, C.L.L. "A Cambridge introduction to Post Colonial Literature in English." Cambridge

University Press, 2007.

Karim, M.M Shariful. "Postmodernism: Issues and Problems." vol. 2, no. 2, May 2013.

Karmakar, Goutam. "A Postmodern reading of A.K Ramanujan." International journal of

English, vol. 5, no. 1, Feb. 2015. Accessed 7 Oct. 2019.

Kristeva, Julia. Powers of horror. COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1982.