Re-Reading Literature from Pandemic Angle: A Study of Select Poems of Pradip Kumar Patra

Abstract

There has been a lot of reading of literature before Pandemic from various angles. But the Pandemic comes as a turning point affecting life at each and every level. The paper will use Pandemic as a method, not as a field. It will look at Pradip Kumar Patra’s poems and show how it reflects aging, disease and death. The study will be a kind of re-reading because the purpose will be to show the physical decadence of humanity in relation to mental change. It will take into consideration the poet’s seven volumes of poems namely Panoramic Shillong, Summer Implications, The Winding Path, Denouement, Dewy Morning, Midnight Divinity, The Rain Speaks.  At the background, the paper will also discuss the similar issues in relation to a few contemporary Indian poets writing in English. It will also use trauma as a method for successfully exploring the issues relating to Pandemic. The paper attempts to examine Patra’s select poems that elucidate the phenomenon of aging, disease and death. Moreover, it tries to encapsulate a kind of link between aging and disease with trauma and pain. The main objective of this paper lies in its delineation of death as a form of physical and mental struggle. The theorising link between aging and death and disease and trauma mark the basis of Patra’s poetic philosophy. This paper analyses the select poems of Patra from the perspective of trauma and pain. It examines the way Patra’s select poems envisage his realisation and awareness about aging, disease and death. The qualitative approach makes the study more focussed and substantial. Patra posits a new proportion towards understanding the value of living and experiencing the pain of death. The sustainability of this relationship finds an important room in the select poems of Patra. The paper directs on the poet’s functional self in emphasising the underlying association between life and death and living and dying. The study re-reads patra’s select poems as from Pandemic angle. It gives special insistence on the traumatised self and strategic philosophy.