1.

Title of Research work Existential Concerns in the Poetry of Nissim Ezekiel

2.

Introduction The advent of modernism in Indian English literature is one subject, an adequate history of which still waits to be written. If the year 1914 was the watershed that announced the herald of modernism in Europe, in India ,the process was far more spread out.Looking back, in the post-colonial scenario in Indian English Writing, the Romanticism and Victorianism of Harindranath Chattopadhyay, Manmohan Ghose and the Mysticism of Sri Aurobindo had outlived its relevance. Since, the Indian freedom struggle had become a deep rooted nationalistic upsurge during this time, the prevailing political and social conditions as well as the general emotional climate was fertile for the growth of a typically romantic art. Technically, also, the preIndependence poetry shows the characteristics of derivativeness and lack of concern with the significance of language and art in poetry. The decades after independence saw a quickening in the shift-- from the then prevalent poetry that engaged in dialogues with eternity to one that sprang from a search for spiritual dimensions inside. Now the voiceless vacant found a voice. The conventional sonnets and elegies made way for the blank verse

and modern idiom .The old imageries as well as attitudes metamorphosed into a new language the living language of Indian experience. Little homogeneity existed amongst the Indian English poets who were writing in this era on matters such as- views on life or poetry per se or even in forms that ranged from formal metered to free verse. However, camaraderie did exist, whose objective of defining and justifying its role was fulfilled by The Writers Workshop founded in 1958. The declaration of Hindi as the national language and the exclusion of English from the list of Indian languages in this decade, further served as catalyst that brought the Indian poets closer to each other-- to reaffirm their faith in English as a language that they felt could play a creative role in Indian literature and a language was at par with other Indian languages in its ability to convey the subtle nuances of the native rhythms. In 1959,this commitment found itself adapted into a revolutionary eight point Kavita Manifesto, edited by P.Lal and K.Raghavendra Rao to define the realm of realistic poetry and set the tone of poetry to come. In their modernist manifesto ,they announced at least two notable principles. In the first place, they declared for honesty of theme and accuracy of expression. They conceived the first duty of the Moderns as being to

disembarrass poetry of its shadow of piety, and they rendered the service. This was the modernism in Indian terms that implied both a radical criticism of the past and a definite commitment to change the values of the future. It was characterized by praise of non-conformism, courageous exploration and confidence in the final victory of time and immanence over traditions that try to appear eternal and immutable.

Their second principle followed--emphasizing the newness of the matter. They were obliged to make their meters more elastic to accommodate their novelties. Their free verse was no form at all, yet it made history. Hence, modernism was not historically but aesthetically forward. The distance between the reader and the poet was narrowing down and the stage was set for a change whereby, Nissim Ezekiel, as a mouthpiece of this movement, establishes for himself a place and claim. As an original creative writer of poetry in English in India, he not only was the voice of this new creed but also the inspiration of poetry for many young poets. While there is a formidable list of the modern Indian poets in English, the poetry of most of the leading poets- Nissim Ezekiel, Dom Moraes, P. Lal, Adil Jussawalla, Gieve Patel, A.K Ramanujan, R. Parthasarthy, Kamala Das, Gauri Deshpande, Monica Verma, to name a few, lends itself to study as a

movement or a body of poetry for which self- probing and defining contexts of self have been major concerns. Ezekiel, the poetry czar of post- independence Indian-English Poetry was born on 16 December, 1924 to Moses Ezekiel Talkar and Diana of BeneIsrael Jewish descent in a chawl off Byculla Bridge in Bombay. His father was a lecturer in Wilson College and mother, the founder of the school she taught in. A living legend, whose interests ranged far and wide from writing drama ,poetry-and-art criticism , as well as academics, poetry was Ezekiels forte. His prolific poetic output , spanning over half a century resulted in publication of eight volumes of poetry including the Akademi Award winner Latter Day Psalms(1982). Ezekiels work can be divided, from the technical point of view, into prose poetry and verse. The bulk of his poetry is in free verse, but it includes rhymed verse as well. His corpus also contains poster poems, poems meant for singing and Indian English poems. The themes that his poetic corpus embraces are many and varied. The versatility of the themes explored by Ezekiel clearly leads one to the reflection of lifes impulses in them. Ezekiels poetry derives all its sustenance from his immediate environmentsocial, cultural, literary, political, aesthetic and most importantly, his own mind - the inner environment, the self .The meaning springs out as integrity,

sincerity, authenticity, compassion and freedom of choice. A free disseminator of thoughts, Ezekiel always defied totalitarianism, by denying being fenced- in and defined purely in contexts of stalwarts like Pound, Rilke or Eliot--an individualist to the core. The objective of the proposed work is to study existential concerns in the poetry of Ezekiel and how they stand reflected throughout his poetry. The term existential will embrace all the human concerns , human spirit and human actions in Ezekiels poetry .A poet on a voyage of discovery of an authentic idiom and poetry being life itself for Ezekiel, this quest matures into a voyage inwards. The term will also explore the philosophy of Existentialism as it applies to Ezekiels poetry, The term Existentialism- was explicitly adopted as a self-description by Jean-Paul Sartre, and through the wide dissemination of the postwar literary and philosophical output of Sartre and his associatesnotably Simone de Beauvoir, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Albert Camusexistentialism became identified with a cultural movement that flourished in Europe in the 1940s and 1950s. Among the major philosophers identified as existentialists were Karl Jaspers, Martin Heidegger, and Martin Buber in Germany, Jean Wahl and Gabriel Marcel in France, the Spaniards Jos Ortega y Gasset and Miguel de Unamuno, and the Russians Nikolai Berdyaev and Lev Shestov.

The nineteenth century philosophers, Sren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche, came to be seen as precursors of the movement. Their views existed more as a critical attitude towards common assumptions and positions in traditional theology and philosophy. More specifically, existentialism displays hostility towards abstract theories or systems that propose to describe all of the intricacies and difficulties of human life through more-or-less simplistic formulas. Such abstract systems tend to obscure the fact that life is actually rather disorganised , often problematic. For existentialists, there is no single theory that can contain the whole of the experience of human life. An existentialist viewpoint may be understood as the philosophical theory which holds that whatever happens to us, is a consequence of our choices and we must take responsibility for that there is no way we can transfer that to any other agency, human or otherwise. This predominant feature strikes the discerning reader in Ezekiels poetry where his sensitivity is found operating in response to the ethical, cultural, literary and political scenarios and the poet emerges as - doubter, interpreter, creator, silent thinker, communicator, innovator and messiah. Ezekiel's views on love, religion and poetry are all connected with his ideas on the state of man, his pangs of loneliness in "First Theme and Variations"

(Sixty Poems,1953) For him , human existence is characterized by Sartrean nothingness where he surrenders to the final void which would analyze his errors(Nothingness Sixty Poems, 1953).His existentialist authenticity indicates a certain kind of integritynot that of a pre-given whole, an identity waiting to be discovered, but that of a self-defined role to which he commits himself in his commitment in Background ,Casually(Hymns in Darkness, 1976) The studies made on Ezekiel so far concentrate more or less on the stylistic devices, thematic aspects, form and value of his poetry, in a segregated manner or his poetic art in synthesis. Little has been done to contextualize these aspects vis--vis his concerns about existence before essence. His thoughts about human existence require new categories not found in the conceptual repertoire of ancient or modern thought. Ezekiels Conclusion (The Third, 1958)proclaims that human beings cannot be understood as substances with fixed properties or as subjects of an outside world Just at this moment of extreme individualism, however, Ezekiel steps back and reminds us that we arent isolated individuals but rather members of communities and of the human race. There may not be a universal human nature, but there is certainly a common human condition we are all in this together, we all living in human society, and we are all faced with the same

sorts of decisions. He advocates development, decision and defining of the world through an engagement with oneself, the society, and the natural world. (Creation, Sixty Poems, 1953) Ezekiel unabashedly portrays critical moments where basic truths about human nature and existence come crashing down upon him, upsetting his preconceptions and shocking him into a new awareness about life in poems like Psalm 151, Sixty Poems, 1953. These existential moments of crisis then lead to more generalized feelings of angst. He exhorts absolute freedom in the world. This freedom in turn produces anxiety and fear because, without an essence, humanity is left alone and without an external source of direction or purpose. Then for him , there isSo much light in total darkness!/So much courage given beside the abyss.(Hymns in Darkness,v.) . The objective of this research works then is (a) to study closely the instances existential concerns Ezekiels poetry(b) to gauge the ingraining of existentialism in moulding and explaining the contexts of his poetic self.

3.

Brief review of work already done in the field

A review of critical literature on the poet demonstrates that the five book length studies that have appeared so far comprise of Chetan Karnanis Nissim Ezekiel(1974) in which a systematic graph of Ezekiels poetic sensibility has been chalked out , A Raghus The Poetry of Nissim Ezekiel (2002) carries out a thematic and stylistic analysis of the corpus of Ezekiel. Anisur Rehiman in his Form and Value in the Poetry of Nissim Ezekiel (1981)has dealt with the form and value in Ezekiels poetry. Harish Raizada in his Nissim Ezekiel: A Poet of Human Balance (1992)concentrates on the humanistic pre -occupations of the author. Sanjit Mishras The Poetic Art of Nissim(Ezekiel 2001) provides rich glimpses into the authors poetic virtuosity. There has been no dearth of critical interest in the works of this versatile author. Qamar Talat in her paper Nissim Ezekiel vis--vis His Contemporary Indiain Indian Writing In English ,Vol 1(Ed. Rama Kundu,2003) enumerates and evaluates the glimpses of India that a reader catches in Ezekiels works. M.K Pandey discovers Ezekiels concern with finding meaning in life on hisQuest for Self-Realisation in Nissim Ezekiels Poetry in Indian Poetry in English (Ed. Birendra Pandey,2001) .A.K Sinha captures The Ontological Elements Ezekiels Poetry in Indian Writings in English,Vol 5( Ed.Manmohan.K.Bhatnagar,1994) .

There is a large number of researches on different aspects of the works of Nissim Ezekiel, some of which are listed in the attached Bibliography. Much has been written on various aspects that engage his poetry, however, to the best of the researchers knowledge ,no other doctoral research work has been completed on the theme of existential concerns in his work.

4.

Noteworthy contributions in the field of proposed work

As mentioned above, there is little or no work dealing directly with the topic of this proposed research work ,to the best of researchers knowledge. However, there are a number of articles dealing with the idea of humanism in Ezekiels work which are listed in the attached Bibliography. A handful of critics have attempted to study and highlight the social consciousness ,Indianness, quest for identity, humanism and inner conflicts of some Indian poets like Pritish Nandy, A.K Ramanujan and Ezekiel. Existentialism in the works of Nissim Ezekiel, however, has not been explored separately. Since Ezekiels highly developed and projected existential strains are the main feature in most of his poems, my study will explore this feature in the poetry of the author.

5.

Proposed Methodology of Research Work.

The proposed methodology for this research work is descriptive ,analytical and comparative with other poets with special focus on the selected angle of enquiry. Texts will be corroborated with current trends in Ezekiels criticism. For the purpose of documentation, MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, Seventh Edition, will be followed.

6. Proposed Chapter Wise Division of Dissertation

Chapter-1 Poetic credo of Ezekiel

Nissim Ezekiel will be placed in the historical background of Indian English poetry and vis--vis his contemporaries and his predecessors. The credos of these poets will be discussed in comparison to that of Ezekiel .

Chapter -2 Existentialism-Concept, Nature and Directions

The chapter will examine the meaning, nature and scope of existential concerns and take existentialist themes as its basis . Existentialism is a philosophical movement which emphasizes on individual existence, freedom and choice. There are several philosophical positions that existential philosophy adopts but the main identifiable common proposition, is that existence precedes essence. By this, existentialism states that wo/man exists and in that existence, wo/man defines her/ himself and the world in her/his own subjectivity. S/he wanders between choice, freedom, and existential angst .

Chapter- 3

Quest for the Self

The chapter will find answers to questions like-what it means to be a human being for Nissim Ezekiel. The theme of love ,problem of identity and selfquestioning will be discussed as predominant themes of this phase and their echoes will be discovered in his poetry in the corpus of A Time To

Change(1952) ,Sixty poems(1953)) and The Third(1958) . His poetry will be explored as the endeavours and outcomes of the poet in the quest and evolution of his own idiom in poetry and will also compared and contrasted with similar quests in other poets. Glimpses of existential angst, abandonment and subjectivity will be highlighted.

Chapter -4

From Skepticism to Faith

In this chapter, an analysis of poetry from the corpii of The Unfinished Man(1960),The Exact Name(1965) and Hymns In Darkness(1976) will shed light on the poets stance as he is juxtaposed between an existential involvement and an intellectual-theological urge to rise above it. The exploration will show the achievement of the poet in reaching a holistic view in which dualities are embraced .

Chapter- 5

Reconciliation of Conflicts

This chapter will journey along with Latter Day Psalms(1982) and the Poster Prayers which culminate in an acceptance and affirmation which endow him with an enlarged sympathy. The poets response to the

macrocosm and his decision to celebrate life despite its paradoxes will be understood.

Chapter- 6

Conclusion

This chapter will sum up the findings of the dissertation and open up avenues for further research.

Chapter- 7

Expected outcome of the proposed work

The thesis is expected to shed light on the existential concerns operating in the works of Ezekiel and consequently enrich the understanding of what goes into the making of poetry.

Bibliography

Primary Sources Nissim Ezekiels Works

A Time to Change, London : Fortune P, 1952. Sixty Poems. Bombay : published by the author, 1953. The Third. Bombay: Strand, 1958. The Unfinished Man. Calcutta : Writers Workshop, 1960. The Exact Name. Calcutta : Writers Workshop, 1965. Hymns in Darkness. Delhi : Oxford UP, 1976. Latter-Day Psalms. Delhi : Oxford UP, 1982. Collected Poems 1952-1988. Delhi : Oxford UP, 1989.

Secondary Sources

Karnani, Chetan. Nissim Ezekiel. New Delhi : Arnold Heinemann, 1974. Kher, Inder Nath. Introduction. JSAL, 11.3-4 (1976) : 3-7. ____ That Message from Another Ezekiel. Mahfii, 8.4 (1972) : 17-28. King, Bruce. Modern Indian Poetry in English. Delhi : Oxford UP, 1987. _______.Three Indian Poets : Nissirn Ezekiel, A.K. Ramanujan, Dom Moraes. Madras : Oxford UP, 1991. Shore :The EstheticVision of Nissim

Kundu , Rama, Ed Indian Writing in English.New Delhi: Atlantic, 2003. Misra, Sanjit. The Poetic Art of Nissim Ezekiel .New Delhi :Atlantic, 2003. Naik, M.K Ed..Aspects of Indian Writing In English. New Delhi: Macmillan,2006. Pandey, Birendra . Indian Poetry in English, Atlantic: 2001 Paranjape, Makarand. Ed. Indian Poetry in English. Madras Macmillan, 1993. Raghu, A. The Poetry of Nissim Ezekiel. Atlantic,2008. Rahman, Anisur. Form and Value in the Poetry of Nissim Ezekiel. Delhi : Abhinav, 1981. Rao, R. Raj. Nissim Ezekiel: The Authorized Biography. New Delhi : VikingPenguin, 2000.

Sarang, Vilas, Ed. Indian English Poetry since 1950 : An Anthology. Bombay: Disha-Orient Longman, 1990. Sartre,J.P.Existentialism ,tr, Bernard Frechtman.Oxford,UP, 1956. Shahane, Vasant A. The Religious -Philosophical Strain in Nissim Ezekiels Poetry JSAL, 11.3-4 (1976) : 253-6 1. .

Existential Concerns in the Poetry of Nissim Ezekiel SYNOPSIS

Submitted for the the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English By Rinkoo Wadhera under the Supervision of Dr. Abha Pandey Professor and Head Department of English Government Model Science College, Pachpedhi, Jabalpur Rani Durgawati Vishvavidyalaya Jabalpur (M.P)

PROFORMA FOR SYNOPSIS (Para-3)

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3. A brief review of the work already :............................................................................. done in the field. 4. Noteworthy contributions in the :............................................................................. field of propose work. ............................................................................. 5. Proposed methodology during the ............................................................................. tenure of the research work. ............................................................................. 6. Expected outcome of the proposed : .............................................................................. Research work. ............................................................................. 7. Bibliography in standard format :..............................................................................

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8. List of published papers of the :.............................................................................. Candidate. ...............................................................................

Signature of the Supervisor

Signature of the Candidate