THE POETRY OF A. K. RAMANUJAN:
A STYLISTIC AND STRUCTURAL STUDY
THESIS
Submitted to the
JIWAJI UNIVERSITY, GWALIOR
For the award of the degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
IN
ENGLISH
By
SUDHA MISHRA
Under the supervision of
DR. O. P. BUDHOLIA
Professor, Govt. College, Bhitarwar (Gwalior)
Research Center
GOVT. K.R.G. AUTONOMOUS COLLEGE, GWALIOR, M. P.
Appendix – IV
DECLARATION BY THE CANDIDATE (PARA 26-B)
I declare that the thesis entitled The Poetry Of A. K. Ramanujan : A Stylistic and
Structural Study is my own work conducted under the supervision of Dr. O. P.
Budholia, at Govt. K. R. G. Autonomous College, Gwalior approved by Research
Degree Committee, I have put in more than 200 days of attendance with the
supervisor at center.
I further declare that to the best of my knowledge the thesis does not contain
any part of any work which has been submitted for the award of any degree either in
this University or in any other University/Deemed University without proper citation.
Besides this –
1. I have successfully completed the Course Work of one semester as per UGC –
Regulation 2009 norms.
2. I have also given a pre-Ph. D. presentation and successfully incorporated the
changes suggested on the basis of feedback and comments received.
3. I have also published one research paper in an ISSN/ referred journal from the
research work of the thesis and have produced an evidence of the same in the form
of acceptance letter/or the reprint.
Dr. O. P. Budholia
Sudha Mishra
Professor
Govt. College, Bhitarwar (Gwalior)
Signature of Head UDT/Principal
APPENDIX - IV
CERTIFICATE OF THE SUPERVISOR (PARA 26-C)
CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that the work entitled The Poetry Of A. K. Ramanujan : a Stylistic
And Structural Study is a piece of work done by Ms. Sudha Mishra under my
guidance and supervision for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of Jiwaji University,
Gwalior (M.P.) India, and that the candidate has put-in an attendance of more than
200 days with me.
To the best of my knowledge the thesis:
1. embodies the work done by the candidate herself.
2. has duly been completed.
3. fulfills the requirements of Ordinance relating to the Ph. D. degree of the
University and
4. is up to the standard both in respect of contents and language for being
referred to the examiner.
Dr. O. P. Budholia
Professor
Govt. College, Bhitarwar (Gwalior)
Forwarded
Signature of Head UDT/Principal
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I take this opportunity to express my profound gratitude to my guide Dr. O. P.
Budholia, Professor, P. G. Department of English, Jiwaji University, Gwalior, for his
sympathetic encouragement and creditable guidance that I received throughout the
process of this study. His valuable guidance and suggestions only could make this
work successful. I, thus, as a token of my gratitude, dedicate this work to Dr. O. P.
Budholia.
I wish to record my thankfulness to Dr. Saroj Modi, Principal, Govt. K. R. G.
P. G. Autonomous College, Gwalior, and the benevolent staff of the institute, which
was my study center, for their everlasting support.
I am particularly indebted to my parents Dr. P. S. Pandey and Smt. Kamalavati
Pandey who have always been the prime source of inspiration in all my pursuits. I am
thankful to my husband Mr. L. K. Mishra and my loving sons Devaansh and
Yashwardhan for bearing with me in my busy schedule during the project, and for
providing an unconditional support throughout. I must not forget to record my
gratefulness to all my relatives and friends whose valuable inputs and moral support
always provided me with instant enthusiasm.
Finally, I bow before the Almighty God who enlightened my path for
completing my research work successfully. May Lord Shiva always be with me!
Date:
Sudha Mishra
PREFACE
A. K. Ramanujan is incontrovertibly one of the most dynamic and prolific modernday Indian poets in English. Among Indian English poets, A.K. Ramanujan is
unequivocally unique and has held the stance of the readers in a captivating manner.
A modernist, with his propensity essentially ingrained in ethnicity, Ramanujan
presents a harmonized blend of tradition and modernity. He is a polyglot, writing with
equal grace and ease in English, Tamil and Kannada. He has been awarded with
several literary decorations, notably the high-exalted ‘Padma Sri’ in 1976 and the
‘Mac Arthur’ Prize fellowship in 1983.
The present study aims to make an impartial, judicious and deep scrutiny of A.
K. Ramanujan’s poetic work. It attempts to take a fresh look at Ramanujan’s poetry,
revealing the so-far-unexplored aspects and tries to consolidate the distinctiveness of
the themes, techniques and poetic devices he has employed. Operating at all linguistic
levels (e.g. lexicology, syntax, text linguistics, and intonation), it endeavors to analyze
both the style of specific texts and stylistic variation across texts. On the one hand it
weighs the literary elements of style; and on the other hand it probes deep into the
linguistic elements of structure – thus bringing out an all-new holistic treatment to the
work of this prodigious poet of the contemporary poetic cosmos. The study seeks to
answer two questions: firstly, “what are the prominent graphological, phonological,
morphological and lexical devices used in the poetry of A. K. Ramanujan”, and
secondly, “to what extent, and to what effect, does the poet exploit the poetic license
and makes a linguistic free play with set standards of grammar”.
The First Chapter Introduction introduces the main notions of English
versification and presents an outline of poetic text analysis tools. It defines “stylistics”
and “structuralism”. It also details what is meant by the description and analysis of the
variability of linguistic forms in actual language use as well as the process of
investigating a poem's form, content, and history, with the aim of heightening the
understanding and appreciation of the work. This chapter also gives an introduction of
the poet under study, along with an insinuation to what the thesis is aimed at.
The Second Chapter Verbal Patterns studies Ramanujan as a masterful verbal
artist in his own right. It makes a study into stylistic analysis and the use of
coordinating conjuncts and inflections in his work. The chapter makes a scrutiny into
his exquisite sentence structures, use of graphological, phonological, morphological
and lexical devices that captivate the reader and help him empathize with the context.
Further, the chapter makes a study of coordinating conjuncts employed by
Ramanujan. It also studies the inflectional aspects of his language usage in terms of
prefix, suffix, or infix, or another internal modification such as a vowel change.
The Third Chapter Lexical Features analyzes the sorting out of various words
used with coordinating conjunctions and the use of prefixes and suffixes in relation to
the structural mode of poems. According to Ramanujan, a poet is made of words.
Words are like object; they have a sound; a look. Words reveal the very personality of
the poet. Words have an elastic quality, which is found in the individual twists and
turns that a poet gives to them in order to express his emotions, ideas, feelings and
fancies in his own peculiar way. So the words assume newness and innocence. Words
translate into imagistic patterns the inner thought movements of the poet. So the
chapter also analyzes image as an important element in Ramanujan’s poetic credo.
The Fourth Chapter Deviations and Parallelism deals with the language of
poetry as it is different from the language of other literary genres. This chapter
analyzes fronting and foregrounding in Ramanujan’s poetry, his use of ellipsis in
order to impart precision and brevity, and his figurative expressions. Foregrounding is
the technique whereby some key linguistic elements are made to look more prominent
than the others.
The Fifth Chapter Poetic Technique is specifically meant for analyzing the use
of language, metaphor and the situational and contextual reference of the narrative
pattern in Ramanujan’s poetry. The term ‘Technique’ stands for the peculiar method
to do anything. When the adjective ‘poetic’ is added to the noun ‘technique' it shows
the rhyming technique, metrical technique, compositional technique and the linguistic
technique. These are the techniques which have been analyzed in depth in this
chapter.
The Sixth Chapter Semantics and Semiotics scrutinizes the kinds of words
used and the layers of meanings hidden in their usage. Ramanujan’s poems entail
several layers of meanings; each word he uses is chosen with great care, to further the
intended meaning in minimum possible lexical use. Each word has something to
reveal beyond the literal surface meaning. Semiology is the study of symbolic
presentation of things. Ramanujan himself was a linguist who used to work as a
professor of Linguistics at the University of Chicago. The words he uses in his poetry
are not easy to understand. This chapter analyzes the property of phonetics and
stressing mode in the words he uses. In the art of semiology, the various methods for
expressing the content such as symbols, metaphors and the oblique patterns have been
analyzed.
Ramanujan uses scenes of the external phenomenology to express his
imaginative height. The theory of time and space becomes a tool with him for
internationalizing the process of culture and certain other anthropological issues. With
his intellectual credentials and stylistic devices, he stands as a class by himself. He is
superb in probing into the inner consciousness of his use of indigenous backdrop. He
attempts to discover the labyrinths of his poetry in the context of the psychological
formulations. These inner images of human mind resemble the image of seen objects
of life.
The connotative meaning in the composition of A.K Ramanujan can be
understood only when one understands his method of composition via an analysis into
the elements of style and structural pattern found in his work. This thesis is a deep
analysis of the poetry of A.K Rarnanujan and presents a critique on the basis of
various Linguistic devices.
CONTENTS
TOPICS
PAGE NO.
PREFACE
CHAPTER I :
i-ii
INTRODUCTION
A) Stylistics and Structuralism
1
B) A. K. Ramanujan: Life and Formative Influences
8
C) A. K. Ramanujan’s Poetic Works
13
CHAPTER II:
VERBAL PATTERNS
A) Stylistic Analysis
25
B) Coordinating Conjuncts
45
C) Inflections
53
CHAPTER III:
LEXICAL FEATURES
A) Noun Patterns
65
B) Verb Patterns
76
C) Adjective Patterns
81
D) Prefixes and Suffixes
86
CHAPTER IV:
DEVIATIONS AND PARALLELISM
A) Fronting and Foregrounding
90
B) Ellipsis
115
C) Figures of Speech
119
CHAPTER V:
POETIC TECHNIQUE
A) Iceberg Technique
130
B) Sentence Complexity
147
C) Poetic Structure
155
CHAPTER VI:
A) Meanings of the Words
SEMANTICS AND SEMIOTICS
164
B) Kinds of the Words
177
C) Semiologic features
181
D) Symbolism
186
CHAPTER VII:
CONCLUSION
A) Conclusion
196
BIBLIOGRAPHY
206
APPENDIX:
PUBLISHED PAPERS
(According to UGC Norms)