Beauvoir in india

 　　In contemporary Indian literary circles, South Indian writer Kamala Das occupies a unique position with her outspoken, self-confessing poetry, and has been controversial for her unapologetic love affairs. She is often compared to Beauvoir, Duras and the American poetess Sylvia Plath. Well-known expert on Indian English literature, Ayangar pointed out, "There is no doubt that Kamala Das is a new phenomenon in Indian English poetry since Trudt and even Sarajini Naidu. Her Poetry has a strong female sensibility and dares to express the hurts of the patriarchal society without hesitation."

　　Kamala Das was born in Malabar in 1934, when Malabar belonged to the British province of Madras. After the independence of India, the region became a district of Kerala. Kerala is a very beautiful place in southern India, the capital is Trivandrum and the official language is Malayalam. Compared with other states in India, Kerala is relatively developed in terms of education and culture, and women are also highly educated. Kamala Das's family belongs to the higher Brahmin caste - Nayar, who believes in traditional Hinduism and enjoys a high reputation locally. Historically speaking, the Nayar caste once established a small kingdom and ruled one side. Kamala's maternal grandfather was a prince of the native state before independence.

　　Kamala Das's family has a strong cultural atmosphere. Her father is the editor of the well-known Malayalam magazine "Motherland", her mother is a well-known Malayalam poet, and her great-uncle Narayana Menon is also a famous local poet and translator, who translated Hugo's poems into Malayalam. Narayana played a very important role in Kamala's education. He led Kamala into the treasure house of world literature and instructed her to read a lot of world literature. So, Eyengar said, Kamala Das had the blood of poetry in his veins. Later, Kamala Das's father went to Calcutta to work in an automobile trading company, and Kamala Das went to Calcutta with him. From the perspective of education, she was influenced by the local culture of her hometown, and also accepted the influence of the urban culture of Calcutta.

　　Kamala Das writes in two languages, Malayalam and English. In Kerala, her fame was largely established by writing short stories. Kamala Das is a diligent writer. From the publication of her first work in 1955 to her death in 2009, she has published nearly 80 collections of poetry, short stories, novels, essays, memoirs, and travel notes. Her writing has also won many awards: nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1984, with Margaret Yourcenar, Doris Lessing and Nadine Gordimer; Asian Poetry in 1998 Award; Kent Award in 1999; Indian Academy Award in 2003.

　　Kamala Das's writing is so closely related to her personal life that it can be said that her poems and novels are all about writing herself, not to mention her memoirs. In My Story (1976), she candidly chronicles her life since she was 4 years old: childhood experiences, her life in a parochial school as a girlhood, her parents' arranged marriages, the birth of her 3 sons, and even a secular life Unacceptable extramarital love. Her bold display and exposure of her personal life is reminiscent of Beauvoir's autobiography, Memories of Girls' Generation. Kamala Dass once stated the purpose of writing her autobiography:

　　"My Story" is my autobiography. I had the idea to write about it the first time I had a heart attack. The doctor said that writing would take my attention away from my fear of death. At that time, in order to give me a good rest, the nurse would give me some medicine, my sleep was intermittent, and when I was awake, I began to write. I write not only to fulfill my promises, but to empty my heart of secrets, and when death comes, I can leave with an empty consciousness.

　　And Kamala Dass's secrets to be emptied are not only her own, but must involve relatives around her, and some of those past events are hidden, but she seems to have no scruples. For example, she revealed that her husband was gay, At Kamala's birthday party, she dated her boyfriend in the bedroom and left Kamala aside; her husband dedicated Kamala to his boss for his promotion; and Kamala was constantly breaking through the siege. , looking for extramarital love. Her self-disclosure embarrassed her upper caste family, whose family members protested at the publishing house in an attempt to stop the publication, but the author insisted on publishing it. For all these reasons, this work has become one of the best-selling female autobiographies since India's independence. Kamala had written many poems before and was well-known, but "My Story" made it famous and received attention from all over India. But in old age, Kamala Dasthan said: "My family was hurt because of this book."

　　Kamala Das's marriage, like many Indian women, was an arranged marriage. In 1949, Kamala Das Das is married to Mantawa Das, she is 15 and he is 35. Before marriage, Kamala Dass knew nothing about the man who was going to be her husband. The married life was not harmonious. In the second year, she became a mother at the age of 16, which brought her a lot of pain and loss. When she had nowhere to express her emotions, she began to secretly write poems by herself after the child was asleep. Fortunately, Kamala's husband supports her writing. Mantawa Das worked for the Reserve Bank of India and later for the United Nations. Kamala Das lived with her husband in such famous metropolises as Delhi, Calcutta and Mumbai. In addition to her personal experience, her poetry also adds observations of urban life. In 1981, the husband retired, and the couple returned to Kerala to spend their later years. Kamala took good care of her husband, who had been in poor health a few years before his death. Before his death, her husband said to her in front of his family and doctors: "Thank you, you made my life." She asked her husband: "Why thank me?" The husband said: "Because of love, because of your care." Kamala Dass told a friend, "It was a complete marriage, and he finally realized what I gave and made it perfect."

　　Kamala Das believes that love is the most important content in a woman's life, and the desire, waiting and pursuit of love have also become the themes of her poetry. From the perspective of Indian tradition, women are repressed in a patriarchal society, and their families are regarded as their world. They have become a silent group in history, and it is difficult to call for their equal rights, let alone talk about women's desires in public. . But Kamala Das wants to break this tradition. Like a revolutionary, she breaks free from the shackles of tradition and expresses women's needs, sexual pleasures, and inner pains boldly and directly in her poetry. This has never been seen in women's creations in India. Some scholars pointed out that she broke the romantic poetry style that had been influenced by British literature in the 19th century since the independence of India, and created a new era of poetry.

　　Her representative work, An Introduction, reflects her straightforward style, both in language and content:

　　I am Indian, dark-skinned,

　　born in Malabar, and

　　I speak three languages,

　　in two languages . Writing,

　　a language to dream.

　　Don't write in English, they say, English

　　is not your native language.

　　Why don't you let me be free?

　　Critics, friends, relatives,

　　each of you.

　　Why won't you let me speak the language I like?

　　The languages ​​I speak have become mine,

　　their deformations, their weirdness,

　　are mine, only mine.

　　It's half English, half Indian,

　　maybe funny, but it's honest,

　　it's got life, like me

　　Do you see?

　　It speaks of my joys, my longings, my hopes, and

　　to me it is as useful

　　as a crow's roar, a lion's roar.

　　After entering marriage at the age of 15, she experienced the pain of nowhere to find love, and became rebellious, cut her hair short, refused to wear sari, and then:

　　I met a man

　　I love him

　　I don't call him by any name

　　He is A man who wants a woman

　　I am a woman who seeks love

　　In his body is the turbulence of hunger In

　　me is the sea that waits tirelessly

　　In "The Looking Glass", she even boldly calls for women to get Male love is about giving your body:

　　it's easy to make a man love you

　　Just honest with your feminine needs 　　Give

　　him everything that makes you a woman 　　The fragrance of long hair, the sweetness of your breasts, the 　　warm blood and 　　your endless female thirst

　　Kamala Das lived a wild life, and her poems recorded her joyous and wonderful experiences in her love life:

　　it smelled of new rain and buds,

　　that warmth

　　, it was the earth seeking its roots,

　　I think

　　even I The soul

　　also spreads its wings somewhere

　　I have no shame in loving his

　　body It was a 　　winter night And the cold wind was 　　laughing

　　on the white pane In her experience, she realizes that the love that she wants to merge with soul and body is only an ideal, and her poetry adds melancholy and disappointment to the unrestrainedness. In "The Old Playhouse", she expresses the domestication of women by men, a strong male self permeates every corner of life, and women become dwarfs in the world of men. 　　In "A Losing Battle" (A Losing Battle), she made a sharp satire on a man who only knew how to enjoy carnal pleasures, and there was no lack of inner sorrow and sentimentality. In the poem, she wrote: " 　　Men are worthless, 　　only worthy of use. The meanest bait to 　　catch Never use love 　　For women 　　Love is tears 　　and eternal silence

　　Although there are disappointments in marriage, loneliness, confusion and ecstasy in extramarital love, but after experiencing all kinds of emotional setbacks, the poet has not lost his longing and passion for love. After the death of her husband, a young and charming suitor appeared in the poet's life - the 38-year-old Muslim scholar Sadiq Ali, the 65-year-old poetess who fell in his tenderness and ferocity, Although she knew that Sadic Ali had two wives, she still planned to marry him. For love, she gave up the Hinduism she had accepted since childhood, converted to Islam, and changed her name to Kamala Suryya (Surayya). Her conversion caused an uproar in India, and even her life was threatened at one point, and she received threatening calls more than once, and she had to ask the police for protection. Her relationship with her relatives was once again estranged, and she was seen as a disgrace to the family. However, the love she pursued with her reputation and life was like the radiance of the setting sun, and was quickly swallowed by the night. When the two were pushed to the forefront of public opinion, Sadiqi Ali completely denied their relationship, and then disappeared, leaving the aged poet to face public accusations and abuse. Later, when the poet talked about his conversion, he said with remorse that it was not worth changing his religion because he loved someone. Sadic Ali made waves in the poet's old life, but betrayal, intrigue and intimidation did not make the poet lose confidence in love, she wrote the story of the two into a novel, expressing her love for love with a perfect ending. eager.

　　On May 31, 2009, Kamala Das died in Pune, and her relatives sent her back to her hometown of Kerala for burial. Along the way, the people who came to send her formed a long queue, and her coffin was piled with flowers. Although many people once hated the poet's conversion, after her death, many people attended her funeral, which was broadcast live on local television. On the same day, Indian President Manmohan Singh issued a condolence message, praising Kamala Das's contribution to Indian contemporary poetry, "because her poetry focuses on women and feminism, which has won her one of the famous contemporary poets in India. . . . Her achievements are not only in poetry, but also in painting and fiction. As a columnist, her series of columns touches all aspects of women, children and political events." These praises The words affirmed the poet's achievements, but for the poet herself, she wrote for love, "I write with the female body at the core, even at the cost of my life, because I want to make People know what love is."