Dialogue: A Journal Devoted to Literary Appreciation

Editorial

Sudheer Chandra Hajela — 2024-12-30

How Not to Read Jayanta Mahapatra: A Tribute via A Whiteness of Bone

Alok Kumar — 2023-12-30

Jayanta Mahapatra straddled a whole generation of Indian English poetry as a colossus and continues to do so even after his death. He lived a full life and has left behind a legacy that is an antidote to our fevered and anguished cerebrations. Only now we are beginning to discover ways to unravel the magic of his lines, for we don't go to a Mahapatra for topicality and contemporaneity of themes, but for the residual wisdom that defies ratiocination. We go for the strange quiescence that his poetry bequeaths. This paper is a tribute to a poet who—strange as it may sound, given the forbidding opaqueness of his poems—instilled in me the taste for poetry. My poet lives with me… Here I watch my little craft spread its wings and hear my memory echo across its muteness. All night words of mine drift, nearing meaning but never finding it. (A Whiteness of Bone 40)

Jayanta Mahapatra : A Silent Valediction

Suresh Chandra Pande — 2023-12-30

Sahitya Akademy award winner Jayanta Mahapatra - a luminary of Indian English Poetry was born on October 22,1928 in cuttack-Odisha and died there on August 28,2023.He belonged to a lower-middle class Indian family and after having gained Master's degree in Physics began teaching in different Government colleges in and across Odisha from 1949 to 1986.Meanwhile he authored 27 books of poems of which 7are in Odia and the rest in English. Best known for “Hunger” and “Indian Summer” Jayanta Mahapatra's “A Rain Of Rites” has an unusual enthrall and merit that I have attempted to interpret/ unravel briefly in my own culturally creative mode in this article besides commemorating his death. It is a book having imagery and symbolism as it's main thematic concern. The image of rain is used by the poet to symbolize fertility, creative impulse and destuctive power-potency.The rain as metaphor at various places never falls rather gets converted into light and then fails to accomplish its objective. Moreover, the whole series of poems suggest a process of purification by means of –strange stillness, quietude, solitude, mud-built houses, rivers, hills, trees and a vast stretch of landscapes. The soul of the poet is torn between good and evil, fair and foul and the ultimate judgement for deliverance, Mukti or salvation. As a whole-Rain Of Rites is an exacting lyric of troubled soul and undefined unhappiness that has left a good legacy :a gift.

Harmonizing Horizons: Vijay Kant Dubey's Melodic Reflections on Jayanta Mahapatra's Poetic Symphony

Aisha Haleem — 2023-12-30

Bijay Kant Dubey is the Head of the Department of English in Chandrakona Vidyasagar Mahavidyalaya, Mindrope. He is a gifted writer who has penned down a plethora of writings including poems, book reviews, articles etc. This paper aims to examine Bijay Kant Dubey's commentary on the great poet Jayanta Mahapatra through his six poems on the renowned poet. It will attempt to highlight not only the perspective of Dubey but will also put forth his writing style. It will help in adding depth to the understanding of Mahapatra's poetry so far. Being and enthusiast of Jayanta Mahapatra's poetry, the style of his writing have little similarity with that of Mahapatra's, such as simplicity with effective technique of intertextuality, use of slight touch of Indian rural spoken dialect in English language specially when he talks about the women of village and subaltern group of women. Dubey's poems are deliberate attempt of Mahapatra's appreciation in a poetic form. This paper aims at exploring Mahapatra's poetic sensibility and simplicity through the select poems of Bijay Kant Dubey which is written on and about Mahapatra.

Social Introspection of Myth, Reality and Self in Jayanta Mahapatra's Epic Poem "Relationship"

Jyoti Kala — 2024-12-30

This paper explores the subjective memory of Jayant Mahapatra through his epic poem Relationship, in which his consciousness is subsumed into the question of how to express his love and gratitude for the motherland, the place of his nativity. His originality and authenticity of a major poetic voice have been precisely for the reason that despite the English language being his early creative writing medium, his sensibilities as a poet operate within the boundaries of his typically Oriya culture. He establishes a relationship between his lonely and rootless life and 'this temple in ruins, in a blaze of sun'. The poet seems engulfed in the tedious dualism and oscillating for rootedness between the faith of Christian and Hindu religions. He questions the validity of his relationship with his friends also who are in a state of pitiful or contemptible intellectual or moral ignorance completing the journey of life, 'unsullied by guilt, and untouched by belief'. Mahapatra's response to the landscape, his sense of myth and history, tradition, and the culture of his birthplace gives him distinct identification. The history of Orissa is his subject and the culture of it is the space of his poetry. He considered poetry as a "craft" and used symbols, images, myths, metaphors, and similes to bring out rich and effective poetic vision. Jayant Mahapatra's Relationship presents the varied facets of human life poetically. However, this paper argues through the lens of social introspection of myth, reality, and self in Jayant Mahapartra's epic poem Relationship.

Re-creating Homeland in The Poetry of Jayanta Mahapatra

Sonali Das — 2024-12-30

One of the most widely known and celebrated poets of India is Jayanta Mahapatra. He has been an influence on a number of contemporary Indian English poets and brought recognition to this new genre by being the first ever recipient of Sahitya Akademi Award for poetry in 1981 for his book of verse, Relationship. Relationship is set in Odisha where Mahapatra has glorified the rich landscape and culture of the eastern coast. The sun and the soil of Odisha, his homeland, shine in the poetry of Jayanta Mahapatra. Puri, Konark, Cuttack, Bhubaneswar form a quadrangle in Mahapatra's poetry. Legends, myths and history associated with these places form the core of his poetry. Poems such as “Indian Summer Poem”, “Evening in an Orissa Village”, “The Orissa Poems”, “The Indian Poems” and “The Indian Way” reveal his Indian sensibility. The themes of his poetry are varied – love, sex, death, tradition, rituals and contemporary reality. My paper makes a humble attempt to explore the concept of 'Homeland' explored in the poetry of Jayanta Mahapatra

Casting Shadows and Sunlight: Deconstructing the Cultural Kaleidoscope in the Select Poems of Jayanata Mahapatra

Andleeb Zahra — 2024-12-30

Jayanta Mahapatra, an eminent Indian poet writer in English language, captures the essence of cultural variations through the prism of his verse. His poetry transcends geographical boundaries, delving into the intricacies of identity, landscape and human experience. This paper explores the thematic motifs of cultural diversities and the interplay of regional identities in Mahapatra's poetry, revealing how he intricately weaves the complexities of cultural landscapes into his verses. In essence, Mahapatra's poetry serves as a reflection of the rich and varied cultural variations prevalent in India. His ability to encapsulate the essence of diverse cultural landscapes through his verse contributes significantly to the discourse on identity and regionalism making his works a significance contribution to the world of literature

Depiction of the 'Whore Image' in the Poems of Jayanta Mahapatra: A Critical Analysis of Select Poems

Milind Raj Anand — 2024-12-30

The present research paper has been written with the primary objective to investigate Jayant Mahapatra's numerous poems that throws light on the dark side of the society. He keeps a critical eye on the whore image through his works. His works focuses on the depictions of the abject and pitiable circumstances of such women who have been objectified for sexual gratification. Such women are forced to such pathetic and horrendous condition without having another option for their survival. This paper focuses on the real life experience and the treatment they receive from this patriarchal society which is sexually perverted and seeks physical pleasure and mental relief among the prostitutes. He has focused on the intimate desires of the male sex and laid bare the cruelty of it over the female prostitute with distinct picturization of the receiver's anatomy and the act in itself without letting it slip into the erotic realm of the literary creation. He refers his female characters in third person. Very rare they have been addressed by their names. They exist without any name which exhibits the unnoticed, unappreciated and insufficient existence in the society. They have been viewed through male centered lens and suffer sexual, physical objectification. The dark and dull moment of the life of prostitutes has been documented. The prostitution business has been filled with the plight of women where they have been trapped in the trade of sexual gratification in sexually perverted society. He used his literary craft in sensitizing the well-to-do world of the plight of the destitute and desperately worked to bring a positive change through his writings.

Ethos of Orissa Landscape and Indian Sensibility In The Poems of Jayanta Mahapatra

Manu Joshi — 2024-12-30

Jayanta Mahapatra is one of the rising stars on the firmament of this species of Indian poetry. His works is of such intrinsic worth that he has already come to be regarded as the forth great poet in India. His ironic treatment with superb use of imagery with reference- to some of the more representative poems in the perspective of his commitment to a personal vision embedded in the materials practices, values of Oriya culture and rituals to some people of India. This paper attempts at the study of socio-political ethos of his native place, the images of locale, the social injustices that embodies the Oriya consciousness. The enormous contribution to the growth of Indian poetry in English , although he sporadically ventured in the realms of fiction; he will be remembered primarily for his poetry, his use of irony, imagery on love, sex, rituals and human misery voicing democratic mode.

Navigating Social Realism in the Poems of Jayanta Mahapatra

Ajeet Kumar Gupta — 2024-12-30

Jayanta Mahapatra, one of the most distinguished poets of India who believed poetry as the best medium for the expression of experiences of reallife. He has made enormous contributions to contemporary Indian literature. He was one of the three prominent figures in the arena of Indian poetry in English, who are regarded as the founding fathers of Indian poetry in English, together with A.K. Ramanujan and R.K. Narayan. The subject matter of his poetry is always inspired by the realities of the society what he himself was a witness. He attends to the anguish and suffering of people at the back of the queue. The marginalised and downtrodden people are the characters of his poems. Extreme poverty, starvation, prostitution, patriarchy etc. are the major focuses of his poems. He is a poet born and brought up in the temple town of Cuttack, he tries to comprehend the reality of human nature. He attempts to start a dialogue between religious ceremonies and daily life problems of common folk. In order to gain a deeper understanding of society, Mahapatra's poetry serves to reveal socioeconomic facts. Its goal is to depict its members' true sociopolitical and sociocultural characteristics. He begins with his capacity to create new connections and weave new meanings that cause his heart to resonate emotionally