Between Two Worlds: The Poetry of Eavan Boland and Sujata Bhatt
Keywords:
Diaspora, Displacement, Homeland, Migration, Resettlement, Irish diaspora, Indian diaspora, Diasporic consciousness, Exile, Renegotiation of language, Myth of return, Loss, Dislocation, Geographic boundaries, Ethnic boundariesAbstract
The concept of diaspora, which examines the displacement of people from their homeland, has gained critical attention in contemporary literature. This paper looks at two contemporary poets, Eavan Boland and Sujata Bhatt, and their experiences of migration and resettlement in the Irish and Indian diaspora. Their poems explore aspects of diasporic consciousness through feelings of not-belonging and exile, the renegotiation of the vernacular or language, and the myth of return to the homeland. By examining these aspects of diasporic consciousness, the paper illustrates how the experience of loss and dislocation can be shared across geographic and ethnic boundaries.
Downloads
References
Bhatt, Sujata. “History Is a Broken Narrative.” Augatora. Manchester: Carcanet, 2000. 40-43. Print.
Bhatt, Sujata. “The Multicultural Poem.” Augatora. Manchester: Carcanet, 2000. 100-03. Print.
Bhatt, Sujata. “The One Who Goes Away.” The Stinking Rose. Manchester: Carcanet, 1995. 3-5. Print.
Bhatt, Sujata. “Whenever I Return.” Pure Lizard. Manchester: Carcanet, 2008. 34-35. Print.
Boland, Eavan. “Anna Liffey.” In a Time of Violence. Manchester: Carcanet, 1994. 41-46. Print.
Boland, Eavan. “Becoming the Hand of John Speed.” Domestic Violence. New York: Norton, 2007. 64-65. Print.
Boland, Eavan. “Emigrant Letters.” Against Love Poetry. New York: Norton, 2001. 42-43. Print.
Boland, Eavan. “An Irish Childhood in England: 1951.” Outside History: Selected Poems 1980-1990. New York: Norton, 1990. 88. Print.
Butler, Kim. “Defining Diaspora, Refining a Discourse.” Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies, vol. 10, no. 2, 2001, pp. 189-219, Project Muse, doi: 10.1007/978-1-349-42655-2_1.
Hall, Stuart, and Paul Du Gay. Questions of Cultural Identity. London: Sage, 1996. Print.
Mishra, Vijay. “The Diasporic Imaginary: Theorizing the Indian Diaspora.” Textual Practice, vol. 10, no. 3, 1996, pp. 421–47.
Nasta, Susheila. “Home Truths: Diasporic Fictions.” Wasafiri, vol. 10, no. 20, 1994, pp. 3–12.
Rushdie, Salman. “Imaginary Homelands.” Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism 1981-1991. London: Granta, 1991, pp. 9-21. Print.
Safran, William. “Diasporas in Modern Societies: Myths of Homeland and Return.” Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies, vol. 1, no.2 1, 1991, pp. 83-99.
Safran, William. “Language, Ethnicity and Religion: A Complex and Persistent Linkage.” Nations and Nationalism, vol. 14, no. 1, 2008, pp. 171-90.
Said, Edward W. “Reflections on Exile.” Reflections on Exile and Other Essays. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000, pp. 173-186. Print.
Sandten, Cecile. “In Her Own Voice: Sujata Bhatt and the Aesthetic Articulation of the Diasporic Condition.” The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, vol. 35, no. 99, 2000, pp. 99-119.
“Sujata Bhatt in Conversation with Vicki Bertram.” Interview by Vicki Bertram. Carcanet Press, n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2013. < www.carcanet.co.uk/cgi-bin/scribe?showdoc=4;doctype=interview>.
Vertovec, Steven. “Three Meanings of ‘diaspora’, Exemplified among South Asian Religions.” Diaspora, vol. 7, no. 2, 1999, pp. 1-36.
