International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD)

Volume 7 Issue 1, January-February 2023 Available Online: www.ijtsrd.com e-ISSN: 2456 – 6470

Strip Teasing the Self in Kamala Das Poetry

Dr. Paviter Mohan
Associate Professor, Govt. College, Hisar, Haryana, India

ABSTRACT How to cite this paper: Dr. Paviter

The outpouring of human emotions which was hitherto considered Mohan "Strip Teasing the Self in
objectionable acquired a new dignity in Confessional poetry. Kamala Das Poetry" Published in
Revolting against an early tendency to put up an impressive International
intellectual smoke screen, the sixties’ poets express their feelings of Journal of Trend in
Scientific Research
failure, guilt, disappointment, incestuous desire and experience in
and Development
mental asylums, denying all taboos. Just as Browning probes into the (ijtsrd), ISSN:
mind and heart of his characters, so do the poets of the sixties try and 2456-6470,
fathom the complexity of the psyche. The admission of fear, guilt, Volume-7 | Issue-1, IJTSRD52775
neurosis and failure voiced in the poems, pertain to the poet’s own February 2023,
life and hence involves a lot of autobiography. The confessional pp.771-776, URL:
poets of the 1970’s achieve universality through personalization – the www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd52775.pdf
self and family history. It is an ‘extremist art’ that has more in
common with psychoanalysis. Confessional movement of poetry Copyright © 2023 by author (s) and
International Journal of Trend in
means objective, analytical or even clinical observation of incident
Scientific Research and Development
from one’s own life, whether tingled with comedy or irony, self- Journal. This is an
loathing or compassion. One thing that these writers have in common Open Access article
is the conception of the self as passive. Confessional poetry is a distributed under the
struggle to relate the private experiences with the outer world as it is. terms of the Creative Commons
Such struggle is evident in the poems of Kamala Das from a very Attribution License (CC BY 4.0)
early stage. Her chief contribution to modern poetry is not only (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)
stunning frankness she betrays in every line she writes but also in making public a vast fund of agonies and
information regarding women’s psychic experiences that have laid hidden for ages, in the private female sector.
She throws the unholy sanctum open and etches out all caustic detail in full public view. Kamala Das has faced
frustration, disillusionment and drabness that she has expressed through her poetry which is known as the
confessional poetry of Kamala Das. Her poetry is unconventionally bold and shockingly autobiographical where
the confessional mode is fused with a feministic slant. One can establish a link between the two confessional
poetesses (Kamala Das and Sylvia Plath) with all their problems, psychological traumas, frustration and the
resultant quest for identity arising from the revolt against male-dominated world and so on. Both indulge in self-
awareness, self-exposure and self- introspection in order to define her-self poetically. These confessional poets
write poems that are candid, honest and down to earth. These poets give expression to their hidden thoughts and
feelings that would normally not find expression in the social milieu. Kamala Das also develops the confessional
mode of poetry. Her dissatisfaction in marriage and life has sharpened her consciousness, and she possibly
decided to air out her grievances through the poetic medium, because many unpalatable things can be said in this
medium without incurring the wrath of the powerful person. A desperate obsession with love is one prominent
feature of Kamala Das’ poetry. The wounded self, which has to struggle hard to achieve its own identity, is the
principal theme that runs through her poetry. The alienated self of Das engages in a hectic search for genuine
love. Loveless poems are elegies on the death of love, against which even a marriage, often drab and banal to the
persona, is no insurance. Humiliated at the boarding school by the Britishers and at home by a brutal husband,
she becomes a psycho-pathological dwarf. This paper optimizes her bitterness about the sexual politics of female
submissiveness and her attempts as a modern Indian woman to free herself sexually and domestically from the
role of bondage sanctioned by the society. Pain being the central and all-pervading symbol to her existence,
Kamala Das makes use of poetry as redemptive and as a metaphor of relief in order to transcend the aches of her
lonely soul. Lyrics, thus, are a psychic striptease of a woman poet who is denied the emotional involvement
which she hungers after. The sense of nothingness of man-woman relationship pervades her poetry.
KEYWORDS: Confessional poetry, symbolist, psychological crisis, humiliation, autobiography, archetype,
sanctum, depersonalization, anxiety, incompatibility

@ IJTSRD | Unique Paper ID – IJTSRD52775 | Volume – 7 | Issue – 1 | January-February 2023 Page 771
 International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development @ www.ijtsrd.com eISSN: 2456-6470
With the influence of French symbolists, particularly accepted and established form came into vague with
Rimbaud, Baudelaire and Laforgue who “used poetry the publication of Robert Lowell’s Life Studies in
as a means of illuminating psychic regions in 1959. The outpouring of human emotions which was
themselves that would otherwise have been kept hitherto considered objectionable acquired a new
concealed” (King P. R. 153), the poetry in early dignity. Lowell revolted against an early tendency to
century exposed a decadence and breakdown of value put up an impressive intellectual smoke screen, in
in both culture and individuals. At least this could be their own individual manner, the sixties’ poets
argued as a central driving force in Eliot in The Waste express their feelings of failure, guilt, disappointment,
Land and Other Poems, in Pound in Cantos, and in incestuous desire and experience in mental asylums,
parts in Yeats. But in these poets there remains the denying all taboos. Just as Browning probes into the
assumption that they were writing not merely out of mind and heart of his characters, so do the poets of
their sense of a crisis of values but of that shared by a the sixties try and fathom the complexity of the
whole society, and they wrote from the position of a psyche. The admission of fear, guilt, neurosis and
strong and authoritative sense of their own purposeful failure voiced in the poems, pertain to the poet’s own
identity. life and hence involves a lot of autobiography.
Phillips is of the view that “whereas the poets of
More recently particularly among the American
1930’s and 1940’s consciously strove for universality
poets, like John Berryman and Robert Lowell there
through the invocation of mythological and
emerged poetry which appears less concerned to
psychological archetypes, the confessional poets of
generalize its explorations and expressions of the
the 1970’s achieve the same through personalization
poet’s own inner state. It is a kind of poetry, which
– the self and family history” Philip Robert 16).
M.L. Rosenthal has called “confessional”. Here the
confessional needs to be explicated. According to the Confessional poetry has a hybrid mode of poetry that
Oxford English Dictionary, ‘confession’ would mean came into existence as a consequence of
“to acknowledge that one has done wrong or make popularization of the psychological studies, the
known one’s sins to a priest” (Hornby 177). But M. L. spread of the Freudian and the Jungian theories and
Rosenthal has defined ‘confessional’ in terms of the emergence of the feminist movement. A. Alvarez
literature when he wrote The New Poets: American refers to such poetry as ‘extremist art’ that has more
and Brit`ish Poetry since World War II. In literature it in common with psychoanalysis. He says that “if
is “the private life of the poet himself, especially surrealists are concerned with the wit and
under stress of psychological crisis that becomes a whimsicality of the unconscious, extremist art is
major theme” (Rosenthal 15). He used the term committed to a stage below this before the dream
confessional to describe the intimate and immediately work, begins.” To such poets, “Freud becomes their
personal works of Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, Allen God” and their goal is self-therapy of purgation
Ginsberg, John Berryman, Theodare Roeththe and (Alvarez 214).
Anne Sexton. He saw confessional poetry as the
Confessional movement of poetry means objective,
“culmination” of what he considered a continuing
analytical or even clinical observation of incident
Romantic and modern tendency to place the literal
from one’s own life, whether tingled with comedy or
self-more and more at the center of the poem. The
irony, self-loathing or compassion. One thing that
confessional poem brought “private humiliation,
these writers have in common is the conception of the
sufferings and psychological problem into the poems,
self as passive. Confessional poetry is a struggle to
usually developed in the first person and intended
relate the private experiences with the outer world as
without question to point to the author himself”
it is. Such struggle is evidence in the poems of
(Rosenthal).
Kamala Das from a very early stage. Her chief
According to Raveendran, a confessional poet is “a contribution to modern poetry is not only stunning
writer of spontaneous emotional expression with a frankness she betrays in every line she writes but also
capacity to dominate over others in that mode in making public a vast fund of agonies and
becomes a significant personality influencing the rest. informations regarding women’s psychic experiences
Hence, individual writers have definite places in the that have laid hidden for ages, in the private female
super personal development, that is the school” sector. She throws the unholy sanctum open and
(Raveendran 119). etches out all caustic detail in full public view. On
Confessional mode of writing has its origin in the that account, she has become unwittingly though a
mid-50s in America. Confessional poetry demands female Pope of the brave woman who can look to her
attention to Robert Lowell the strongest figure to with deference for inspiration, guidance and
emerge in the period. Confessional poetry as an commitment. Kamala Das has faced frustration,

@ IJTSRD | Unique Paper ID – IJTSRD52775 | Volume – 7 | Issue – 1 | January-February 2023 Page 772
 International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development @ www.ijtsrd.com eISSN: 2456-6470
disillusionment and drabness that she has expressed perpetuation. In this poem, Plath sees herself and her
through her poetry which is known as the imagined persona not merely as a victim caught in
confessional poetry of Kamala Das. This is what this situation, but in some sense culpable as well. The
Pasupati Jha means when he says, “The poetry of poem begins with an image of depersonalization:
Kamala Das is unconventionally bold and shockingly “First, are you our sort of person?
autobiographical where the confessional mode is Do you wear
fused with a feministic slant.” A glass eye, false teeth or a crutch,
Sylvia Plath suffered, like Kamala Das, a nervous A brace as a hook,
breakdown almost at the same age that was due to an Rubber breasts or a rubber crotch” (Mecbeth
intense, nearly unbearable love for her adored father. George 303).
But whereas Kamala Das could be cured, Sylvia Plath We are already so involved in a sterile and machine-
could not. One can establish a link between the two dominated culture that we are likely part artifact and
confessional poetesses with all their problems, sterile ourselves. The definition of the woman shows
psychological traumas, frustration and the resultant her be even more alienated and dehumanized. The
quest for identity arising from the revolt against male- woman is portrayed as the mechanical doll. Woman
dominated world and so on. Both indulge in self- does not exist before the marriage and dissolves back
awareness, self-exposure and self- introspection in into nothingness after it,
order to define herself poetically. These confessional
poets write poems that are candid, honest and down to “But in twenty five years she’ll be silver,
earth. These poets give expression to their hidden In fifty gold
thoughts and feelings that would normally not find A living doll, every where you look,
expression in the social milieu. The emotions It can sew, it can cook.
portrayed by them are true to their own feelings and It can talk, talk, talk. (Mecbeth George )
their opinions and are born of sincere personal In this poem, Plath describes the emptiness which
conviction. For these confessional artists, “the artistic characterizes the applicants and which is variant on
problem is to make genuine poetry out of the the roboticized activity.
language of untrammeled self-awareness”(Rosenthal
and Shally 303) . Parallel to Sylvia Plath, Kamala Das also develops
the confessional mode of poetry. Her dissatisfaction
The confessional mode becomes a device to formalize in marriage and life has sharpened her consciousness,
the process of analysis and adjustment of the problem and she possibly decided to air out her grievances
that crops up from poets’ own cultural milieu. Plath through the poetic medium, because many
who, like Kamala Das, felt herself surrounded by the unpalatable things can be said in this medium without
violence of everyday life, communicated these incurring the wrath of the powerful person. A
feelings with a startling clarity. In confessional poetry desperate obsession with love is one prominent
of Plath there lies very small difference between the feature of Kamala Das’ poetry. The wounded self,
author and the persona. In her poetry subject and which has to struggle hard to achieve its own identity,
object, torturer and victim are finally is the principal theme that runs through her poetry.
undistinguishable. In her writing, the revealed and the The alienated self of Das engages in a hectic search
repressed are allowed to speak at the same time. She, for genuine love. Loveless poems are elegies on the
like other confessional poets, makes use of a persona death of love, against which even a marriage, often
to create interests. Thus, through the use of mask, one drab and banal to the persona, is no insurance.
can tell the complete truth of one’s life. Like the Humiliated at the boarding school by the Britishers
Indian confessional poet named Kamala Das, Plath’s and at home by a brutal husband, she becomes a
vital information in her verse is about the tragedy of psycho-pathological dwarf:
her life. Similar to Kamala Das’ candid records, her
(Plath’s) poetry is a sensitive record of life’s negative “Cowering beneath your monstrous ego,
aspects. I ate the magic loaf and
Become a dwarf” (Mecbeth George).
‘The Applicant’, a poem by Plath, is explicitly a
portrait of marriage in a fully ironic way. ‘The My story reveals Kamala Das’ inward journey—her
Applicant’ suggests a close connection between the search for identity. Her offended feminine self goes
capitalist economic system, the patriarchal family, on some emotional wanderings attempting to explore
and the general depersonalization of human identity and freedom. This book optimizes her
relationship. However with this system got started, bitterness about the sexual politics of female
both men and women are implicated in its submissiveness and her attempts as a modern Indian

@ IJTSRD | Unique Paper ID – IJTSRD52775 | Volume – 7 | Issue – 1 | January-February 2023 Page 773
 International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development @ www.ijtsrd.com eISSN: 2456-6470
woman to free herself sexually and domestically from necessitates control and manipulation by the informed
the role of bondage sanctioned by the society. Pain and intelligent mind. This is, of course, what she
being the central and all-pervading symbol to her characterizes as ‘cries’ from the heart. The sense of
existence, Kamala Das makes use of poetry as failure leads to an alienation of the poet from the rest
redemptive and as a metaphor of relief in order to of the world. The rift between the poet and the world
transcend the aches of her lonely soul. She confesses seems to be such as cannot be bridged by any human
at the core of her heart that:- being. In ‘The Bell Jar’ which is also a part of Plath’s
I also know that by confessing tragedy, Esther Greenwood is a girl who comes
by peeling off my layers increasingly to feel herself alienated from the
I reach closer to the soul moments of her most personal experiences. She feels
And disassociated not only from around her but also from
to the bone’s herself. In the ‘Suicide of Egg Rock’, the woman is
supreme indifferences (Mecbeth George) fed up of life:

All her compositions are an outpouring of her own “Everything glittered like blank paper” (Ted
loneliness disillusionment and sense of frustration. As Hughes 231)
she want to striptease the layers of her mind at full It seems too neat to be coincidence that Plath should
length. In ‘My Story’ she acclaims: begin drafting poems that responds so immediately to
“I let my mind striptease. the breakup of her marriage with Ted Hughes on the
I must extrude my autobiography” (Mecbeth reverse of the chapter that marks Esther Greenwood’s
George) discovery of Buddy Williard’s deception. Plath’s
truest voice is the most painful, the one closest to the
The poet is obsessed with soul and seeks to obliterate nerve.
body. Man’s total insensitivity to the female
sentiments and emotions manifests itself in his almost ‘Fever 1030’ dramatically illustrate the individual’s
urgent drive towards liberation and the self-definition.
necrophilic enjoyment of the female body. Indeed to a
man a woman can be lovely even without an iota of The main theme is that the purified self-arises from
the imprisonment of the history. The woman of
feelings or emotions as suggested by the oxymoron
‘Fever 1030’ tries to duplicate Christ’s ascension
“cold loveliness”. In the human world, by contrast,
voice into the experience of the poem, the first half is
particularly in the institution of marriage, lust is often
concerned with establishing an inclusive historical
passed off and the woman is invariably made a victim
milieu against which the persona will transfigure.
of sexual politics leading to profound anguish when
This milieu is the reality of man’s sinfulness which
love becomes blackmailing. She accurately confesses
permeates history. The second half begins with a
in the poem ‘The Suicide’:
direct reference to the speaker’s condition, one of
“Life is quite simple now illness. Like Christ, the speaker is
Love, blackmail and sorrow” (Ted Hughes transfigured/purified:
155)
“I am too pure for you or anyone
It is triggered off by a gnawing sense of loss coupled Your body
with the anguished realization that love is nothing but Hurts me as the world hurts God” (Ted
blackmail and sorrow. It could be the loss of Hughes 155).
speaker’s identity disfigured by the mechanical role-
Describing herself as “pure acetylene” she has
playing. When the light of love is put out, an
transfigured from her physical body into pure spirit.
encircling gloom pervades the mind. This happens
As the speaker abandons her lover, such is the ironic
usually with a sharp, sensitive person like Kamala
tone towards that Plath used in the fully candid
Das. Lyrics, thus, are a psychic striptease of a woman
manner searching for the self. Beware of her ranging
poet who is denied the emotional involvement which
emotions and violent impulses, she uses creative
she hungers after. The sense of nothingness of man-
writing as a means of containment.
woman relationship pervades the poem substitute:
If the human mind once tempered with it will askew
What is
like the ‘idiot bird’. Such is the case with the young
The use, what is the bloody use? (Ted
American poet Sylvia Plath. Recovering from the
Hughes)
disease becomes the themes of most alienated past for
In this regard Das’ closest parallel is found in Plath. It the confessional poet like Sylvia Plath and Kamala
is evident that the core of Plath’s poetic experience is Das. In ‘Tulips’ written by Sylvia Plath, the
personal experience, but for her the creation of art protagonist is laid up on a hospital bed. The desire to

@ IJTSRD | Unique Paper ID – IJTSRD52775 | Volume – 7 | Issue – 1 | January-February 2023 Page 774
 International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development @ www.ijtsrd.com eISSN: 2456-6470
be left alone is so intense and the tempered mind is so which seems threatened and victimized. The private
crucial that object like flowers and photographs life of the two poets, especially under stress of
become unwelcome. In that white, dead world psychological crisis, therefore becomes a major
intruders come in the form of red tulips sent to the theme.
patient. Thus the lyric explains the patient’s alienation Kamala Das is shocked by the un-fulfillment of her
or frustration beautifully: desire for spiritual love. The inner crisis of her reality
“Their redness talks to my wound. is brought about by the crucial facts and artifacts of
Upsetting me with their sudden tongues and social reality. The survival of personality is caught in
their colour the flux of desire, frustration and insecurity on the
A dozen red lead sinkers round my neck” one hand, social fear, hypocrisy and injustice on the
(Richard Ellmann 1038) part of male partner on the other. The psychological
spiritual dimension of love is a significant aspect of
The flowers also watch her and eat her oxygen. In her
Kamala Das’ poetry which is full of the emotions of
anxiety, she equates the tulips with the red blooms of
anxiety, frustration, hollowness and chaos. Under the
heart which insist on beating despite her desire for
subjugation of carnal love, she does not want to loose
death.
her own identity and realize that spiritual/pure love is
‘Morning Song’ the first poem in Ariel is a good an opportunity for the development of personality.
example of the way autobiography can become art. Like shadow upon shadow, her vague awakening for
The deep sense of personal disappointment at having spiritual love falls criss-cross and gets crucified in the
to cut short the vacation sours her imagination and violence of sex. Bearing the brunt of the volcano of
makes her view everything distastefully. The poem sexual humiliation on the part of the poet is the
implies that having a baby cannot be more than central theme for confessional poets. The resultant
winding a fat gold watch. The new world of sense of annihilation of soul projects itself through
motherhood is a frozen one where breath is ephemeral the persistent tendency of the poetic consciousness to
as the life of a moth. The speaker’s dawn is not of associate death and rottenness with the life of sex.
love but one of dimly felt anxiety. The arrival of the She responds to the act of sex:
baby is utterly puzzling to mother. The poet’s angst
what is
transforms the baby into a
It to the corpse if the maggots nip? (Das
“New statue Kamala 22)
In a drafty museum” (Sylvia Plath).
Plath’s “Pursuit” in the similar manner reveals the
The speaker is at a loss to understand her relationship marauder or savage like nature of the man. The man
to this new object (baby). If her infant is merely a is compared with the panther chasing the narrator
mechanical thing, it is ultimately because she is one with high speed. The pursuer is infinitely supreme
also. and steadfast in his chase. This poem employs sexual
Confessional poetry is further marked by the sexual imagery to suggest the consummation that is
candour, frankness and about family life, confessional imminent and in that sense it invites comparison with
of private humiliation of varying pathological degrees “The Maggot” written by Kamala Das:
and kinds, proliferating image of failure, in short by a “Charred and ravened woman lie
literal exposure. The ferocious intensity of the Become his starving body’s bait” (Das
passion, the boiling cauldron of heated emotions Kamala 28).
which Das and Sylvia Plath articulate in their poetry
Thus men are characterized as fierce and savage
stirs deep chords in the reader’s mind. Unlike other
creatures whose very savagery is appealing to
poet, they give the reader a sense of inclusion and do
women. The marauding nature of man is also
not keep their privacy. Their poetry therefore, with
presented in the ‘Queen’s Complaint’ in which
some justification may be called “Confessional”.
Both writers tussle with love, sex, lust, deprivation, “He made her shoulders bare
unfulfilment and separation. In resorting to open self- And selected her, but quit her at cock’s
criticism, in peeling of the layers of pretense, and in crowing” (Hughes Ted 247).
adopting a clipped historical edged tone of objectivity
The woman of Plath’s poetry is imaginative, self-
while articulating subjective reality, these
willed and rebellious. The man, physical and
confessional poets attempt an authentic reconstruction
rapacious, is sought for his sexual power is evident in
and transcendence of the fragmented self. In their
the above-cited examples. Because of this
struggle for an enduring insight, these poets
temperamental disagreement the ties of love are
constantly assert the validity of the feeling personality

@ IJTSRD | Unique Paper ID – IJTSRD52775 | Volume – 7 | Issue – 1 | January-February 2023 Page 775
 International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development @ www.ijtsrd.com eISSN: 2456-6470
uncertain and tenuous. The emotion of love, as REFERENCES
celebrated in Romantic literature, finds no place in [1] Alvarez A, Sylvia Plath, A Memoir “The
the poetry of Plath. Savage God” (London: Weidfeld and Nicalson
The suppressed, endless feminine hungers of a Nair Press, 1971), 214.
girl find an outlet through Das’ poems. She shows her [2] Das Kamala, the Descendant 22.
genuine struggle to dig out her roots like Sylvia Plath
[3] Ellmann Richard, the New Oxford Book of
on expressing the experience of her futility. She lays
American Verse (New York: Oxford University
bare hesitation, failure, ignorance, shame and feeling
Press, 1976) 1038.
of guilt. She succeeds in projecting, with brutal
honesty, the feeling of her agonizing guilt, nauseating [4] Hornby A. S., Oxford Advanced Learner’s
disgust, physical rotting and sickness, inhuman Dictionary of Current English (Oxford: Oxford
bitterness and ultimate futility. The repeated University Press, 1980) 177.
articulation of frantic and unabashed sexual love and [5] Hughes Ted, ed., Sylvia Plath’s Collected
frustration and incompatibility with her male lover Poems (London: Faber and Faber, 1985) 155.
may be partly responsible for her feeling of loneliness
and isolation. She intends to escape from the prison [6] John Auriely, the American Moments (London:
into a new world of love and declares: Edward Arnold, 1977) 64.
“As the convict studies [7] King, P. R. ‘Dying is An Art’, Nine
His prison’s geography Contemporary Poets (Oxford University Press,
I study the trappings 1979) 153.
of your body, dear love, [8] Phillip Robert, the Confessional Poets
For I must someday find (Edvarsvidle: Southern Illinious Press, 1973)
An escape from its snare (Das Kamala) 16.
She aspires for the freedom of a bird. Her language is [9] Mecbeth Gorge; Poetry 1900 to 1975
fully under control. But Sylvia Plath steps further to (Longman with Faber and Faber 6th Ed. 1985)
her tone of male domination and her tone is 303.
outrageous:
[10] Raveendran N. V., The Aesthetics of sensuality:
“Out of the ash A Study of the poetry of Kamala Das (New
I rise with red hair Delhi: Atlantic Publisher, 2000) 119
And I eat men like air” (Hughes Ted 247).
[11] Rosenthal M. L; The New poets: American and
Like the Lowellian Life Studies, Das’ poems, which British Poetry since World War II (New York:
tend at times to sound like a long bill of complaints in Oxford University Press, 1967).
a chancery, too, centre round a study of her life
largely confined as it were to the various stages of [12] Rosenthal M. L. and Shally M. Gall, the
development in her journey a sublimation of carnal Modern poetic sequence: The Genesis of
love. And the emotions of love, as celebrated in Modern Poetry, (New York: Oxford University
Romantic literature, find no place in the poetry of Press, 1983) 303.
Plath and Kamala Das.

@ IJTSRD | Unique Paper ID – IJTSRD52775 | Volume – 7 | Issue – 1 | January-February 2023 Page 776