Elements of Modernism in the Works of Gopal Honnalgere

Abstract

The Modern period, which flourished worldwide in the 20th century, reflects a sense of cultural crisis. It is marked by experimentation, particularly on the forms of literature. The specifics of modernism in Indian literature would be different from that of the West because of differences in cultural sensibilities. Indian modernism would emerge not as a derivative of the western modernism but as an extension, with blending ‘inter-literary phenomenon’ where elements of multiple literary traditions combine to give rise to a distinctive movement. Therefore, there is a difference in the actual time when this mode of literature flourished in the two very distinguished parts of the world. The ‘1959 Kavita Manifesto’ expressed the concern that the poet should be more realistic and freer from the ‘blurred sentiments of Shri Aurobindo’. Gopal Honnalgere, who is credited with six collections of poetry, has written poetry which is an amalgamation of self reflection, concreteness of experience and is unconventional in nature. Auden comments that his poetry is ‘simple but powerful. I liked it.’ Humour is a characteristic feature in his poems. The undertones of urban angst, sexuality, self-disgust and quest for identity are a part of his poetry. Honnalgere, unlike the Bombay school of poetry, wrote in a distinctly ‘Indian English’. In this paper, the researcher has tried to identify and understand the poet within the background of modernism in Indian English poetry and how the poems differ from the Western Modernism.