AN INTRODUCTION AND THE PATRIOT

4) Das's expression of self-consciousness and Hegel's aesthetics

The language of thought and dreams gets its meaning from the
phenomena, from the spontaneous reactions of the poet to the
world. This is Das's starting point; socio-cultural influences are not
tangible or meaningful apart from her reacting to the world, they
are not part of a reality which can be described and then, in a
second step, applied to a description of Das's self. Das intuitively
presupposes a unity of her self and the world in every moment of
apperception, the world and her self get their quality from the
tensions which arise inside of this unity of experience, but the
subjective and the objective remain interdependent. Theories and
influences which do not spring from this interdependence are
rejected as not being important for the introduction of the
speaker: history and politics, the choice of language and the
schemes of the categorisers. The true self which is introduced in
the poem has three central needs: the need for an adequate
expression of the interdependence of the subjective and the
objective, the need for love which is not satisfied through sex, but
foremost through the acknowledgement of the self which is about
to express itself in the poem and the need to express the richness
of the world which she experiences from her point of viewing it in
interdependence with her self. The interdependence of the
subjective and the objective shines through in all these three
needs, but there is always a strong emphasis on the subjective.
Hegel's analysis of acknowledgement is a statement about selfconscious individuals in the socio-cultural reality, it is an
expression of historical and objective events. Das's poem is not a

description of the socio-cultural reality, it is a description of

subjective events in which the interdependence of world and self
is uncovered; power-relations and general descriptions of how
acknowledgement work do not really help in understanding the
poem as an expression of the self.
A poem is not only a socio-cultural object, it is first and foremost a
way of gaining distance to the strong emotions the poet has in
particular situations. The poet tries to express the
interdependence of the particular situation and her emotions after
a phase of deliberation in order to be able to break the spell of
heavily charged images she has in her head and thus to come
back to experiencing herself as a mind that speaks and hears
and / Is aware. The important point in writing poetry is coming
back to the freedom of just being oneself as one is. That is,
according to Hegel's aesthetics, the true meaning of a poets work:
[19]

Das blinde Walten der Leidenschaft liegt in der bewutseinslosen

dumpfen Einheit derselben mit dem ganzen Gemt, das nicht aus
sich heraus zur Vorstellung und zum Aussprechen seiner gelangen
kann. Die Poesie erlst nun das Herz zwar von dieser
Befangenheit, insofern sie dasselbe sich gegenstndlich werden
lt, aber sie bleibt nicht bei dem bloen Hinauswerfen des
Inhalts aus seiner unmittelbaren Einigung mit dem Subjekte
stehen, sondern macht daraus ein von jeder Zuflligkeit der
Stimmungen gereinigtes Objekt, in welchem das befreite Innere
zugleich in befriedigtem Selbstbewutsein frei zu sich zurckkehrt
und bei sich selber ist.[20]

5) Conclusion on intercultural criticism

In this paper, a notion of self-conscious has been developed from
the close-reading of a poem and only after that has it been
compared to the author's favourite theory of the role of selfconsciousness in poetry. This does not rule out that having a
favourite theory did not influence the way in which the poem was
interpreted, but it allows for having good reasons for claiming the
applicability of the theory in this case.
There is also a more general point which can be concluded from
the interpretation offered in this paper: seeing a piece of poetry
as an expression of self-consciousness brings the task of
interpretation to a level which renders it possible for critics who
are not from the same socio-cultural context as the poet. The
difference between self and world is something every human
being seems to experience and an interpretation of the
interdependence of world and self in a poem should thus become
possible in any case. It might even be possible that a globally
relevant culture studies can be based on the idea that selfconsciousness is expressed in every cultural object. But many
more poems, films, sculptures, paintings and photographies from
different cultures must be analysed in a similar way to found
strong grounds on which such a foundation of culture studies can
be claimed.

Kamala Das An Introduction:

The poets written by her are original and have an intensely personal voice.
In An Introduction, Das uses a sarcastic tone to mock the coloniser as because of the
coloniser, India is left in a state of political turmoil (unrest).
The very fact that she wrote this poem in English despite not liking what the coloniser
had done shows her sarcasm.
Kamala Das has written this poem in a free verse which breaks the conventions of
poetry as poetrys are said to have a structure.
Kamala Das says right in the start that she doesnt know politics but knows the
names of those in power which shows that Kamala Das is a true Indian as she knows
the names as well as days of weeks.
Most people told her not to write in the English Language as English is the colonisers
language and not of Indias but Das answers this well by telling the people that she
knows how to speak in 3 different languages, write in 2 and dream in 1.

The Patriot by Nissim Ezekiel

Nissim Ezekiel's poem the Patriot acts as a perfect example of a post colonial and post
modern setting that metaphorically speaks otherwise. The poem may be read as a satire or
rather a well hidden cry for the nation to realize its position as a teetering neo-colonial
country in an apparent post-colonial world.
The poem, written in what is widely known as Indian English, quite blatantly portrays how a
country like ours has imbibed the language of our colonizers, the British, but have managed
to successfully make it our own. This concept of mimicry, first explained by Homi Bhabha,
can be defined as the method by which colonized countries used the knowledge gained by
being educated by the British as well being taught their lifestyle, to give it their own name
and to revolt against their colonizers. Here, we see how the narrator speaks of the youth
moving toward foreign trends and also his own attempt to learn new English words by
reading the newspaper. The poet is trying to bring out these notions as examples of how
mimicry is a vital step toward post-colonialism as even though we learn English and
experience it on a daily basis; we still find places to add our own lingo and also 'Indianize'
western clothing.
Another concept that is brought out in the poem is that of the need for initiative to be taken
by the native intellectuals, in this case, Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi can be considered a native
intellectual as he gained a higher education in London and later used this knowledge to
peacefully wrestle against the British rule, successfully. The poet encourages everyone to
follow the example of Gandhi, even to this date. By concluding this, he talks of how the
nation will always consider its culture to be of utmost importance and that it has been upheld
through several trials and tribulations.
The line All men are brothers, no? depicts the conflict that exists due to being previously
oppressed, the narrator manages to rise above the stereotype that Indians are vengeful and
uncouth, rather they are willing to break through boundaries, to establish unity among nations
as at the end, everyone is familiar with the concepts domination and subjugation.
The final lines illustrate how the nation stands as a united front, in welcoming others to
experience the country as they, the locals, see it. It is seen as entirely new place when spoken
about by Indians, as opposed to reading translations and books written about the Orient by
the past colonizers. In the end, the narrator speaks of not engaging in ceremony as he will
always enjoy the company of others, a cultural practice within the country, contradicting
several popular notions that existing in a neo colonial era, is our vital sin.