JNANPITH AWARDEE Chandrashekara Kambar -Part 2

Drama:

     At the time when Kambar wrote his first play in 1961, the Kannada theatre had begun to move away slowly from the Theatre of Realism (Kailasam and Sriranga), exploring new concerns and newer forms of representation.  The ‘Angry Young Man’  of the Fifties had begun to catch the attention of the city audiences (with the Modernist plays of Lankesh) along with the ‘Absurd Plays’ of Chandrashekhara Patil and Chandrakantha Kusanur.  Girish Karnad’s first play Yayathi (an interrogation of the old myth from a woman’s point of view) had just been staged (1960), introducing mythopoeic drama to Kannada theatre.

JNANPITH AWARDEE Chandrashekara Kambar -Part 1

JNANPITH   AWARDEE   Chandrashekara Kambar : Poet-Playwright:

                      “In  Search  of  Shiva-pura”¹

     Chandrashekara Kambar, playwright-poet-novelist-critic, holds a unique place in the field of post-independence Kannada literature; he fuses modern sensibility with traditional forms of performance and expression.  With 22 plays, eight poetry collections, three novels, and 12 collections of research articles on theatre and literature, Kambar is one of the most significant writers in Kannada, today.

A Critique of Modernity: Kannada Poetry -Part 2

                      

     In the impressive literary oeuvre of Chandrashekhara Kambara, the poet-playwright-novelist, the constant locale of all his works is ‘Shivapura’ –a fictitious Utopia like the city of ‘Kalyana’ in the eyes of the 12^th-century-Veerashaiva saints.  Kambara’s most recent work Ellide Shivapura (Where is Shivapura?), published in 2009, is a collection of 54 poems on varied topics; and it is divided into four parts.  Though the poems are on different subjects, collectively, they connote the socio-cultural contours of the ideal society –Shivapura.

A Critique of Modernity: Kannada Poetry -Part 1

     ‘Modernity,’ derived from Latin ‘modernus’ to mean ‘recent’ or ‘just now,’  is a slippery term; and unless we specify a particular field and particular context, it does not mean anything.  For instance, in the field of literature, Kalidasa, Bhavabhuti, and Bana; in religion, Buddhism, Advaita, the 12^th-century Veerashaiva Movement, and Arya Samaj; in political system, absolute monarchy, empire-building, and democracy –all these can be viewed as ‘modern’ since they rebelled against the ideas and practices of their immediate past and set about exploring new paths.  

Book review: Nirdiganta by Dr. Veena Shanteshwar

                          Shanta Imrapur, ed. Nirdiganta; 2Vols.
                 Sindara Pustaka Prakashana, 2009       price= 359
                     “ A Unique  Festschrift”


     Beginning with Sambhaavane, presented to B. M. Shri. in 1941, there is a rich tradition of festschrifts in Kannada; but most of them tend to be felicitation volumes, full of admiration and eulogy for the concerned writer.  However, Nirdiganta,  presented to Dr. Veena Shanteshwar is an exception; the articles in these two volumes  go beyond personal eulogy and critically discuss the form and concerns of the Short Story in different Indian languages.      

Ways of reading Poetry

                                       

     Let me begin with a few general statements.  The ‘meaning’ of a poem is not its summary or paraphrasable  ideas.  Poetry does not convey what can be conveyed in prose.  In other words, a poem does not only tell us something, but it also attempts to convey a unique experience, feelings, and emotions associated with it.  Such a poetic experience is called by Indian aestheticians ‘rasaanubhaava.’