Split-self and Self-Assertion in the poetry of Kamala Das By Dr. Ram Sharma Senior Lecturer Department of English Janta Vedic College, Baraut Baghpat (U.P)
The term split-self was first given significance for women's poetry in Flowrence Howe's Introduction to No more masks. It describes an opposition women feel between essential aspects of the self, between what is socially prescribed on the basis of gender and what is defined on the basis of the self, between what a woman feels she should be and what she feels she is. Kamala Das has written many poems exploring this duality. Louis Bernikov writes "A Women poet constantly pits herself against cultural expectation of 'Womanhood' and 'Woman's Writing'. She gives her imagination and courage to that struggle, pours energy into it in ways that do not exist for men. Womenness is sometimes seen as authenticity, the essence to be distilled in the poems. Sometimes it appears as a blemish the thing to be covered by poems". The result is 'women frequently go to self-crippling, self denying, self-distorting lengths to force themselves into the male sanctioned molds......" From the beginning Kamala Das demonstrates a continuity of theme and expression concerning central division of the self. Her work is a compelling account of the presence of split. Kamala Das speaks out her heart on her own premises. She redefines herself and liberates herself both as a woman and a poet. She struggles to cope with her problems and dilemmas. She does not attempt to intellectualise nor does she attempts to spiritualise. She makes a discovery of human existence and narrates her experiences vividly and passionately. She rejects masks and roles and refuses to accept the limitations of her biology. Kamala Das's poetry originates from self which functions like a poetic nucleus. An analysis of her poems reveal that the woman persona of her poems represent her 'own mutilated self' tormented by both past and present and resulting in deep sense of crisis. She feels exploited and cheated by the civilization of which she is a part. Kamala Das seems to find no way out of her tormented inner world and knows that there can be no easy solution. Her sense of identity is so fragile that she thinks there are many 'I's' residing within her every thought and impulse claiming its own identity. In 'An Introduction' She proclaims "[....] I am sinner, I am saint, I am the beloved, and the Betrayed. I have no joys which are not yours, no Aches which are not yours. I too call myself I." [53]
Issues concerning women are the recurring themes in the volumes of Kamala Das. Women's social unrest in respect of education and career, sexual desire and frustration, suffocation of a caged loveless marriage, numerous affairs, the futility of lust, the shame and sorrow of not finding love after repeated attempts, the loneliness and neurosis that stalks women especially and such other things which were not spoken of candidly are powerfully dealt with for the first time in her poetry. Those who say that theme in the poetry of Kamala Das is love and for Kamala Das love hardly goes beyond sex and lust do not do justice to her as they tend to neglect the seriousness of purpose in her poetry. Kamala Das protests against the marginalization of women and social injustices and communicates a powerful female sensibility in her poetry. Her self-assertion is clear in her 'An Introduction' (1965) in which she speaks in the guise of a sixteen years old girl who rebels against the norms of patriarchal society to defend and secure her identity in the world. Her defence against patriarchal dictation of "Don't write in English" (52) presents a passionate defence not only for writing in English but also for writing in Indian English-the English one is comfortable with and in which she writes. She craves for artistic and personal freedom of expression in the matters of language, form, subject and style: "Why not let me speak in Any language I like?" [52] As language parameter is a kind of cage which makes one unable to express true emotions and feelings, one needs to choose a language for expression for self and in this way one`s own choice of words for self expression and self attainment. Naturally there is rising voice of depression, frustration and anger against any control or restriction imposed on her. She utters firmly and confidently: "[...] The language I speak, Becomes mine, its distortions, its queerness All mine, mine alone. It is half-English, half- Indian, funny perhaps, but it is honest, It is as human as I am human, don't You see?" [52] Her self- assertion of human right to speak in the language of her own choice, in her own natural voice are praised by the famous critic Bruce King who finds that Kamala Das uses English unselfconsciously, unaffectedly and naturally without the concern for correctness and precision which characterized most earlier modern verse and rhythm. Kamala Das, is generally seen in the forefront of such writers who fought for the rights of women. She writes in her poem `` Next to Indira Gandhi`` `` Father, i ask you now without fear, Did you want me Did you ever want a daughter`` She becomes the supporter of women who have been oppressed and trampled for centuries. She crosses the patriarchal stronghold and tells boldly what women suffer silently-the story of her quick growth into puberty, her sudden marriage, her first sexual encounter in a closed room on the wedding night, etc..... She criticizes the institutions of marriage which gives a man a legal right to commit martial rape on his teenage bride. She rebels impulsively and defies the gender code. She dresses herself in a shirt and trousers, cuts hair short and sits on walls. She refuses to fit in the constructed role of "a girl", "a wife". She does wish to become a woman by wearing saris. Like her own language, she chooses her own man. The poem completes with a strong note of self-assertion: "I too call myself I" (53), an assertion of her individual-self, her independent-self and her integral-self. She refuses to be weak and passive and self-less, self-denying, sacrificing and compliant angel under a masculine value system. The use of the first person pronouns 'I' for 30 times, 'my' for 10 times and 'me' for 8 times in comparison to the use of the second person pronouns for 5 times and the third person pronouns for 9 times marks strong note of self-assertion in her poems. Kamala Das speaks against all kinds of dominance ,oppression and asserts the need of sanity in human relation which is the only mode of preservation of human existence on this planet. Her poem 'The Sunshine Cat' presents an attractive, sensitive and creative woman caught in a loveless marriage suffers a nervous break down and becomes a cold, half dead woman now of no use at all to men. To her the tragedy of life is not that' man dies' but love dies'. She opposes all gender bias which distances men from women and discriminates between them. In her poem The Doubts she questions the feminists as well as the anti-feminists: "When a man is dead, or a woman We call the corpse not 'he' Or 'she' but 'it'. Does it Not mean that we believe That only the souls have sex and that Sex is invisible?" To Kamala Das masculinty and feminity are the traits of one's personality which transcends gender barriers based on biological and social identity. She questions again:"[.....] Is she A male who with frail hands Clasps me to her breast, while The silence in her sick room, turning Eloquent, accuses Me of ingratitude? And is he female who After love, smoothes out the bed sheets with Finickly hand and plucks
From pillows strands of hair?" Anisur Rahman comments, ``As a poet she explores her phychic geography with an exceptional female energy and achieves the capability to express her inimitable vision through the technique of sincerity `` Her voice is the voice of split self and her assertion of womanhood sagging under the pressure of patriarchy. Kamala Das is capable of being a positive even celebratory of human relationship, has woven throughout her work a series of poems describing herself as two co-existent women who are in varying degree of tension with each others. Kamala Das , therefore has expressed her emotions freelythrough her poems, making herself, controversial and at the same time world famous. Commenting on Kamala Das`s achievement as a poetess , Bruce King remarks, ``She brings a case of locality to her poems. There are the rooms in which she lives, thehomes she has left, the bedrooms, the restaurants and streets in which she meets her lovers, the rides in cars, the people she visitsor notices, the people she addresses in personal terms. Where as Ezekiel consciously refers to the environment, Das`s poems assume their location, create their space by being set in situations rather than by observing or alluding to their environment`` In the end i can say that there is split-self and self assertion in the poetry of Kamla Das.
Works Cited Banerjee, L: "Modern English Poetry by Women: A Critical Survey in the Context of Feminism and Commonwealth Literature" Journal of English Studies, VOL-1, NO-1 (Summer, 1995) Ranchi University, Ranchi. Das, Kamla: "An Introduction, The Sunshine Cat, and 'The Doubt' in 'An Anthology of Indian English Poetry' Orient Longman, New Delhi, 1989. King Bruce: " Women's Voice" in Modern Indian Poetry in English, OUP, 1992. Zide, Arlene: "Introduction", In Their Own Voice, Penguin India, 1993 Bernikov, Louis: "Introduction", In Bernikov The World Splits open: Four Centuries of Women Poets in England and America 1551-1590 (N.Y. 1974):8 Anisur Rahman Expressive Form In The Poetry Of Kamala Das ,Abhinav PUB, New Delhi,1981, i Bruce King Modern Indian Poetry In English,Delhi,o.u.p,1987,148
About the Author
WORKING AS A SENIOR LECTURER IN ENGLISH IN JANTA VEDIC COLLEGE, BARAUT, BAGHPAT, U.P.
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