Indian Poetry: Modernism and After

This anthology takes stock of the Indian poetry of the five decades after independence, raises basic conceptual questions, examines paradigm shifts and interrogates the established canons by foregrounding marginalized voices. The papers presented at a Seminar examine the growth of modern sensibility in Indian poetry in specific linguistic contexts, relates it to general cultural issues and examines post-colonial avant-grade trends including the feminist and the Dalit movements. The papers are collected under three heads: ‘Modernism in Retrospect’ examines the historical, political and aesthetic aspects of modernism; ‘ After Modernism: Articulating Resistance’ takes a close look at the alternative trends that challenge the status-quoist mainstream poetry; and ‘Poetry as Discourse: Some General Issues’ takes up some general issues concerning the present and future of poetry, including the problems of the translation of poetry.