A BLEND OF FEMINISM AND POST-MODERNISM: KAMLA DAS’S POETIC WORLD

According to Toril Moi, “In a general way, I see ‘feminism’ as a political position, ‘femaleness’ as a matter of biology, and ‘femininity’ as a set of culturally defined characteristic.” Many historians have categorized women writers in three categories. The first category consists of writers like Jane Austen, Bronte Sisters and others. The second category includes writers like Emily Dickinson, Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath and many others. The first category of writers have struggled to be simply acknowledged in the intelligentsia while the second group has revolted against the male oriented society and sought to establish an isolated world away from the males. The third group has maintained a balance between the above two extremes by being both feminine and feminist at the same time. This group of writers have also less talked about the social or political freedom and never visualized a world existing without men. Kamla Das is a part of this third category. In her poetic world throughout one could easily find a plea for understanding and compassion from the male counterpart. This paper attempts to find a blend between feminism and postmodernism in the poetry of Kamla Das. Key Words: Feminism, feminine, feminist, femininity, women writing, social and political freedom