Feminist Expression in Kamala Das’s “Summer in Calcutta”: Analyzing Gender Roles and Identity
Keywords:
gender roles, confessional poetry, domesticity, Kamala Das, feministAbstract
This study examines Kamala Das’s (an Indian-English writer) 1965 poetry anthology Summer in Calcutta via the feminist themes it contains. It contends that Das’s poetry practice and aesthetic mirror her gendered identity, in which she questions patriarchal gender norms that limit women to the home and immanence and males to the public realm and transcendence. Arranged marriage, emotional torture at home, seclusion, and sexist ideals of female beauty are just a few of the gendered expectations that Das’s poetry attacks. Das draws inspiration from the ‘I'-centered work of Western confessional poets such as Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton. In this intimate and communal writing, the author shares not only her own story but also that of women everywhere who face social, linguistic, political, and cultural marginalization as a result of rigidly enforced gender norms and expectations.
References
De Beauvoir, Simone. "The Married Woman." The Second Sex. Trans Constance Borde and Shiela Malovany-Chevallier. Jonathan Cape (2009): 502-97.
Das, Bijay Kumar. "Paradigm Shift in the Reading of Kamala Das's Poetry." Indian Literature 54.1 (255 (2010): 240-248.
Das, Kamala. "Selected Poems, edited by Devindra Kohli." Gurgaon: Penguin India (2014).
Das, Kamala. "Summer in Calcutta. Kottayam." (2004).
Joshi, Anushree. "Reading Kamala Das’ Summer in Calcutta in the 21 st Century: Interrogation and Confrontation of Gender Roles."
Bethala, Melony Samantha. Women, institutions and the politics of writing: a comparative study of contemporary Anglophone Irish and Indian poets. Diss. University of York, 2017.
