International Referred Research Journal,May,2011,ISSN-0975-3486, RNI: RAJBIL 2009/30097, VOL-II *ISSUE 20

Research PaperEnglish

CONFESSIONAL ASPECTS IN THE PROSE WORK OF KAMALA DAS

May, 2011

*Kamal Kishore ** Megha Chaudhary

* Research Scholar Singhania University, Pacheri Bari (Raj.) ** Research Scholar Singhania University, Pacheri Bari (Raj.) A B S T R A C T
Confessional and cerebral English literature poet Dr. Kamala Surraiya/ Kamala Das gives her view about woman exploitation, loveless relationship, and womans instinctive factions for men, and disillusionment. In this paper we explain confessional aspect of love, body and man- woman relationship. Kamala Das rejecting the way of fellow female writers who try to tackle the problem of existence avoiding any task about their bodies, she confronts her body with unparalled boldness and honesty. Her woman is strong and weak, whores and mother, lovers and wives. Kamala Das portrays herself into her female protagonists. First articulated by Das herself, whereby the vulgar (confessional) topos of brutal or illicit sexuality becomes transformed into the high topos of licit Brahminic mysticism. She also explains theme of body as body of her is a source of both pains of hell and pleasure of heaven .

Introduction Kamala Das: A versatile genius- a poet, a novelist, a short story writer, a columnist, a painter- is a preeminently a poet of love. Kamala Das is a living legend of these times, the woman poet who epitomizes the modernization of the Indian feminine poetic psyche. She was born at Punnyurkulum in south Malabar in 1934 , daughter of the renowned Malayalam poet Balamani Amma. She was deeply influence by her uncle Nalapat Narayan Menon , a prominent writer . She was married at the age of 15 years . Kamala Dass entire life and her writings are a quest for true love which she could get neither from her husband and nor from any other lover. Her concept of love is all inclusive where she wants not only physical but also emotional and spiritual fulfillment. C.N. Srinath observes, Love-desires, genuine love, love on various plains is Kamala Dass main preoccupation ,her obsessions. She is a Rebel poet. Her poetry is neither record of any metaphysical quest nor a store-house of philosophical musings or a propagation of any theories of feminism/socialism/post-colonialism. Conclusion Kamla Das, the internationally acclaimed IndianEnglish poet and story writer writes in the confessional mode in poetry as wall as in prose. Most of her prose have a strong not of subjectivism. My Story deals with her experience as a board which serves as the foundation of her sociological, psychological and even spiritual development. But the most noticeable fact about her bold attempt is that, inspite of trying hard to kill the Angel within herself and denying the traditional Indian morals and values, she is always

aware of the fact that she is deviating from the accepted norms. She made a world of sex having its own morals and values. At times, mainly in her stories, when her super ego within doninates herself, she behaves as the same women who fear to behave like a true autobiographer. She projects herself honestly as really is. It is on the readers to pass their judgement on her personality. Kamla Das case provides an excellent opportunity for a psychological study of the loveless and emotionally deprived life of an imaginative romantie being who is always deprived of the things woman desires. She could not get love ture love through out her life. Women are not born, they are made said the great French feminist. In Kamla Das case, this statement is throughly applicable. She was an ordinary girl having the common morals of the society. Her circumstances made her what she is. Her unsuccessful married life made her a rebellian against the society. Her husband who as a ruthless watcher looking at her at the time when she performed the sexual act with other man, made her a rebel. The wifes infidelity almost becomes a metaphor of her revolt against the stereotype into which she is forced by marriage. This broutal treatment of male frequently occurs in her stories. Seven of the stories deal with the extramarital relationships and infidelity. In A Little Kitten, the wifes infidelity, which is indirectly suggested at the end, is seen as a revenge for her husbands prior infidelity with his secretary. In My Story too, the wifes adultery is presented as a reaction to the husbands love aftairs, homosexuality and cruelity. Same is the case with Kamala Das as she looked outside for love because of her husbands coldness. December presents a woman who has an
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International Referred Research Journal,May,2011,ISSN-0975-3486,RNI: RAJBIL 2009/30097,VOL-II*ISSUE 20

extra-marital affair and after her illness she herself regards it as a infidelity. During her illness she had Promised God never to sin again. But as soon as she gets well, she continued her affair. It is because to her happiness is so simple, just walk into his room and lie down and I am happy. These are the illusions of a woman like Kamla Das who never get satisfaction, in her married life. In Iqbal, it was the moment of discovery when the woman realised that her husband and his friend were homosexual lovers. Kamala Das, who was condemned by her husband as a frigid, who herself accepted the label saying, sex did not interest me except as a gift I could grant to my husband to make him happy She now, out of sheer disgust and burning desire for revenge, steps outside the thresh-

old in order to gratify her own desire. There is again the story of a love intrigue in Sanatan Choudhuris wife. Gopi Menon has a small job in Bombay. He has reason to suspect his wifes fidelily. He hears her whispering Sanatan, my Love in her sleep. He also finds a large number of costly sarees in her wardrob. Certainly she could not have bought them with his money. Kamala Das wanted to fill the wardrob of her heart with true love. As Dorothy Jones informs us, Krishna, the eighth avatar of Vishnu, is traditionally represented in Indian culture as an important focus in Hinduism of Bhakti, the experience of intense religious adoration in which the soul ( representing the female folk) abandons itself in ecstasy to the divine (the male representation).

R E F E R E N C E
* Protest Against Sexual Colonialism: Kamala Das My Story. Jain, Women Writing * Dwivedi, A N Kamala Das Alphabet of Lust *Kamala Das, Why Not More Than One Husband, Eves Weekly *Kaur Iqbal, Sexual Politics and Kamala Das *Ramadev, N Kamala Das nad the Confessional mode, * Usha , V T. One Womans Autobiography: Kamala Dass My Story, in Kamala Das- A Central Spectrum
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