A Postmodern Reading of Jayanta Mahapatra

Abstract

Indian English Poetry before and after Independence are open to discuss and debate. And we can also divide Indian English Literature from 1930s to the end of 20th century into two phases: Modernism and Postmodernism. Modernism came along with Raja Rao's "Kanthapura" (1938) and Postmodernism came with Salman Rushdie's "Midnight's Children" (1981). Actually literature after 1980 came to be known as Postmodern Literature. In case of poetry Nissim Ezekiel's "Letter-Day Plasm" (1982) marked the beginning of postmodern Indian English Poetry. So many poets came after Ezekiel and wrote poetry bearing the tagline created by Ezekiel. Among them, Jayanta Mahapatra's work can be said to embody the characteristics of Postmodernism in the last two decades of the twentieth century. In his paper, I have attempted to show Jayanta Mahapatra as a Postmodern Indian English Poet through some of his eternal verse.

Keywords: Postmodernism, History, Rootedness, Indian woman, Love, Contemporary condition.