Assertion of Self- Identity in the Select Poems of Kamala Das

Abstract

Kamala Das, a very remarkable poet of Indian English poetry, expresses her personal emotional experiences in her autobiographical poems. Her poems express the poet's craving for love and an intense study of marital relationships. She articulates the despair and dejection of the fellow woman through her writings. Quest for identity is undoubtedly the perennial theme of Kamala Das’ Poetry. Her suffering became symbolic of human suffering. In her poems, she suggests that women's personal feelings of longing are part of womanhood's collective experience.

In a male-dominated world, she tried to assert her individuality to maintain her female identity. She is a revolutionary poet who started the trend towards frankness in treating the issues that were considered taboo. Thus, the paper focuses on the personal quest of Kamala Das as a poet and whether her confessional poetry was a medium of searching for her feminine identity in a male-dominated world.