Interpreting Poetry and Evaluating Criticism (Hardbound - 2019)

Interpreting Poetry and Evaluating Criticism seeks to evaluate canonical Indian English poetry and interpret the poetry of W.B. Yeats, T.S. Eliot, Seamus Heaney, Ted Hughes and Nissim Ezekiel as beacon light to English, Irish and Indian English poetry. Attempts have also been made to explicate the poetry of Sahitya Akademi Award Winning Poets, such as Jayanta Mahapatra, Keki N. Daruwalla, Kamala Das, Shiv K. Kumar, Dom Moraes, A.K. Ramanujan, Jeet Thayil, besides Nissim Ezekiel. Part I culminates with an analysis of contextualization of the mythic ‘crow’ and ‘fox’ in Ted Hughes’s poetry.

In part II, an attempt has been made to interpret the criticism of Indian critics such as Sri Aurobindo, Nissim Ezekiel, A.K. Ramanujan, and C.D. Narasimhaiah. One chapter is devoted to glocalization and the eclipse of post-colonial theory. The most significant chapter seeks to find out if it is possible to have canonical criticism, in the same way as we have canonical poetry.

This is an invaluable book for students, researchers and teachers who seek to interpret poetry and evaluate criticism in the contemporary academic situation.

Bijay Kumar Das, PhD., DLitt., is a contributor to The Encyclopaedia of World Literature in the 20th Century (New York). He has published a number of reference books which include Perspectives on the Poetry of A.K. Ramanujan (2013); Twentieth Century Literary Criticism (2010, 2012-2014); Critical Essays on Post-Colonial Literature (2007, 2012); The Poetry of Jayanta Mahapatra (2009); A Handbook of Translation Studies (2005, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2013); Form and Meaning in Mahesh Dattani’s Plays (2008); Post-Modern Indian English Literature (2006); Critical Essays on Poetry (2003); A Handbook of Communication Skills and Functional English (2002); Shiv K. Kumar as a Post-Colonial Poet (2001); A Reader’s Guide to Ten Twentieth Century Indian Poets (1999); Aspects of Commonwealth Literature (1995); The Horizon of Nissim Ezekiel’s Poetry (1995); Perspectives on Indian English Poetry Criticism (1998); and Modern Indian English Poetry (1992). He has edited four reference books: New Readings in Indian English Literature (2011); Comparative Literature (2000); Perspective on the Poetry of R. Parthasarathy (1998); and Contemporary Indo-English Poetry (1992). He has also co-edited one reference book entitled Studies in Postcolonial Literature (2007) and several textbooks including Nineteenth Century English Poetry (OUP, 1992, 1998). He has successfully guided 20 Ph.D. scholars and had been the Chief Editor of The Indian Journal of English Studies for three years (2007-09). He is the Editor of The Critical Endeavour since 1995.

Formerly a Reader in English at Ravenshaw College, Cuttack, Dr. Das is now a Professor of English at Burdwan University, Burdwan (West-Bengal).