Creative Genius Research Articles

Г. ГЕЙНЕ «ENFANT PERDÜ»: ДВА ПЕРЕКЛАДИ ОДНОГО ВІРША

This scientific research is devoted to the attempt of linguistic analysis of Heinrich Heine's poetry "Enfant perdü" and its translations into Ukrainian and Russian made by the Ukrainian poetess Lesya Ukrainka. During the research the author comes to the conclusion that translations of works of fiction play one of the key roles in the process of interaction of cultures of different peoples. Poetry, as a component of fiction, is an important component in the process of spiritual rapprochement of different ethnic groups, their mutual enrichment and development. Undisputed in this process is the figure of the translator, as a bridge between the two cultural shores. The translator's work contributes to a deeper understanding of the foreign language reader and understanding of the mentality of the people whose literature he is acquainted with. And the original through translation gets a new existence in a new parallel projection. The translation of poetic works is considered important in this direction for the author of the investigation. Poetic translation is one of the most difficult areas of translation, as the translator must fully understand the poetic work, the author's idea and concept of the work, which should be fully communicated to the reader in the language of translation, so as not to change the impact of this work on the reader. the language of the original. To the tasks of the translator of poetic works, in contrast to prose, is added the requirement of compliance with the form, rhyme, size, which is not always possible. German, Ukrainian and Russian languages are somewhat similar in terms of poetic dimensions. That is why the Ukrainian poetess Lesya Ukrainka almost always manages to follow the poetic dimensions when translating from German. Poetry "Enfant perdü" is one of the key in the poetic heritage of Heinrich Heine, so it is of great interest to study attempts to translate it into different languages and different translators. And the creative genius of Lesya Ukrainka occupies an important place in this list.

The Centennial Hall of Wroclaw: history of a modern architecture in reinforced concrete classified World Heritage Site

ABSTRACT The Centennial Hall in Wroclaw is a pioneering example of early twentieth century modern architecture and engineering. The construction of its reinforced concrete dome, the largest then built, was a daring initiative which, just for its extraordinary nature, used the most advanced technology of its time. Of particular compositional beauty, this work is equipped with innovative structural qualities, evidently linked to the very nature of reinforced concrete, capable of molding itself in any architectural form. The history of its construction and the reasons that led to its cataloging on the Unesco list, as a priceless cultural heritage, are an important example of the transitory evolution of the concept of ‘cultural heritage’, aimed at incorporating works which, in the past, struggled to be considered assets to be protected. Through this article we want to describe those architectural and technological and landscape peculiarities that have made the Centennial Hall a masterpiece of man’s creative genius; as well as an extraordinary example of composition that has become the spokesperson for one of the most relevant and suggestive phases of the history of world architecture.

Данте и его поэма в восприятии Б. Зайцева

The present article analyzes the last work written by Boris Zaitsev before emigrating from Russia: the article Dante and His Poem dedicated to Divine Comedy. At first glance, the article may seem to be a collection of sundry thoughts about Dante and his work. At the same time, its deeper meaning comes to the fore when one examines the main points made by the author and incorporates the article into his oeuvre as a whole. In the article, Zaitsev focuses on Dante as a human being (“history of the soul”) and on Divine Comedy as a fruit of his creative genius. Having lost his native country even before emigrating from it, Zaitsev desperately began to search for the “truth” in both life and work. In this quest, the exile and truth-seeker Dante served as Zaitsev’s Virgil in his voyage through unknown and often hostile territories. From this standpoint, Divine Comedy acquired a unique meaning for Zaitsev, who began to treat it as a Gospel of sorts. A comparison of this article with Zaitsev’s next work, the essay Saint Sergius of Radonezh that he wrote in emigration, shows the unified perspective of the writer’s work: the connection between truth and the Truth, between poetic word and the Word- Logos. Dante and Saint Sergius are shown as beacons and waymarks in the “gloomy forest” of life. Their life experience, described in the context of their difficult times, served as a source of strength and solace for Zaitsev and offered models of existential behaviour that helped him to break out from horror and gloom towards light and Truth.

Данте и его поэма в восприятии Б. Зайцева

The present article analyzes the last work written by Boris Zaitsev before emigrating from Russia: the article Dante and His Poem dedicated to Divine Comedy. At first glance, the article may seem to be a collection of sundry thoughts about Dante and his work. At the same time, its deeper meaning comes to the fore when one examines the main points made by the author and incorporates the article into his oeuvre as a whole. In the article, Zaitsev focuses on Dante as a human being (“history of the soul”) and on Divine Comedy as a fruit of his creative genius. Having lost his native country even before emigrating from it, Zaitsev desperately began to search for the “truth” in both life and work. In this quest, the exile and truth-seeker Dante served as Zaitsev’s Virgil in his voyage through unknown and often hostile territories. From this standpoint, Divine Comedy acquired a unique meaning for Zaitsev, who began to treat it as a Gospel of sorts. A comparison of this article with Zaitsev’s next work, the essay Saint Sergius of Radonezh that he wrote in emigration, shows the unified perspective of the writer’s work: the connection between truth and the Truth, between poetic word and the Word- Logos. Dante and Saint Sergius are shown as beacons and waymarks in the “gloomy forest” of life. Their life experience, described in the context of their difficult times, served as a source of strength and solace for Zaitsev and offered models of existential behaviour that helped him to break out from horror and gloom towards light and Truth.

"Pinyin Tzimu Project" — a Landmark Event in the History of Chinese Civilization Initiated and Supported by the CPC

The Creation of the Alphabet and words spelling of Chinese Mandarin (Pinyin tsimu project) is a landmark event in the history of Chinese civilization. It breathes new life into ancient Chinese characters. Great "dumb" − the Chinese character − for the first time since 1958 has become known to the whole world by sounds of Beijing speech. Today the two types of writing − Chinese Mandarin traditional ideographic and innovative phonographic writing, in their unity, provide the linguocultural unity of the Chinese society and the progress of science and technology of China. Millions of people in China and beyond are studying the Chinese language based on the sound letter standard of the words of Chinese Putonghua. Letter orthogramms of Chinese words provide tele- and Internet communication of hundreds of millions of Chinese. In the 20 century the first Latinized alphabet for the Chinese language was created with the leading participation of one of the founders and leaders of the CPC, Qu Qiubo, (included in the official list of "100 Greatest Figures of New China") under the influence of the experience of creating alphabets for the peoples of the USSR in 1921-26. Chinese alphabet, based on Latin letters and letter-spelling forms of Putonghua words are a huge scientific achievement of Chinese linguists. Outstanding contribution to the creation of the alphabet and letter words of Chinese Mandarin was made by a brilliant Chinese linguist Zhou Youguang (1906-2011), called the «father of pinyin zimu» or Chinese alphabet in China. The top leaders of the Communist Party of China, Mao Tsedong, Zhou Enlai, Chen Yi led the creation of the "pinyin" alphabet. The political will and wisdom of the CPC's senior leadership, combined with the creative genius of Chinese linguists, ensured the creation of a letter writing for the people of China, which was "an epochal event in the history of the development of Chinese civilization".

Soviet “Humanism”: The Theme of Overcoming Human Suffering in A.M. Gorky and M.M. Zoshchenko

Despite the stereotype of opposing the creative genius to the authorities A.M. Gorky and M.M. Zoshchenko were loyal to the Soviet ideology for a long period of time. Realizing the importance of literature as a non-violent method of ideas spreading and responding to the utopian hope of world transformation by the power of collectivity, they explored ways to overcome human suffering, considering this victory implementable through social transformations or scientific and technological progress in power of man. A.M. Gorky was reflecting the cruelty of life in Russian villages and a city slum for a long time. He paid much attention to the image of a fighter against suffering. One finds examples of such fighters among the heroes of Gorky’s novel Mother (1907), which was canonized by the Soviet authorities as a personification of the human ideal. They are endoewed with such dignities as benevolence, self-sacrifice, simplicity, gift for speaking, etc. In the like manner Gorky described Vladimir Lenin in an essay presented on the occasion of his death. However, Lenin was also depicted as a politician who had to use violence for the sake of future generations’ happiness. Gorky almost justified violence and even considered it as inevitable as a means against suffering even at the cost of its victims. In 1940 responding to Gorky's call to “ridicule suffering” M.M. Zoshchenko creates “Before Sunrise,” a self-introspection story in which he explores his own ability to feel unhappiness. The text imitates the science-focused atmosphere of the 1930s. He concludes that it is possible and necessary to consciously control the “lower floor” of the psyche, which includes fears, early conditioned reflexes and another, often unconscious, shadows” that affect a person’s behavior, including manifestations of cruelty and the ability to experience suffering. With this control it is possible to achieve health as a calm acceptance of the natural and social order, which is more important than a personal experience. Both writers show an undeniable desire to end human suffering and both admit the secondary importance of the suffering of an individual human being in comparison with the common good.

Dictionary of the language of creative personalities of Ukraine about humanism, spirituality, anthropology

The article presents the concept of a new explanatory dictionary of the language of creative personalities of Ukraine that reproduces the active content of the conceptospheres „spirituality”, „humanism”, „philanthropy”, „creativity”, „creative genius of mankind”, which reflect the trends of society, its creative energy, inexhaustible cognitive capabilities of language. The dictionary covers the time periods of the development of the Ukrainian language and society (the epoch of totalitarianism and the period of the new Ukrainian Renaissance), which have not as yet been the object of a systematic lexicographic description. The dictionary is modern in many respects. The dictionary presents new lexical and artistic achievements of Ukrainian writers and translators, which reflect all the complexities of modern life, fill them with linguistic achievements. new global thinking and worldview of creative personalities. The dictionary is valuable for the systematic study of neologization processes, features of semanticization, development of new models of metaphorization, etc. It is a guide to axiology and anthropology – new areas of knowledge about man and their worldview. The material of the dictionary, in particular neolexemes and golden metaphors of writers make it possible to study comprehensively not only the creative laboratory of masters of the word, the internal form of words, the motivational basis of powerful word formation, but also the combined creative experience of representatives of various creative directions – artists, musicians, composers, architects, theater figures and more. The explanatory dictionary combines linguistic and encyclopedic information for a deep perspective study of the creative genius of mankind, aimed at the high ideals of humanism and harmony of worldview. The dictionary is a rich source for a promising macroscientific study of the regularities of the development of Ukrainian linguistic thought concentrated on the conceptual dominants of Ukrainian national renaissance. The language of Oles Honchar’s epistolary is used as illustrative material for the article.

The Influence of Folklore on the Cultivated Albanian Music of the XX Century

Folklore is one of the components and transmitters of a nation's national identity and its spiritual heritage. The great folkloric wealth of Albanian people shows its antiquity and creative genius. As the first creation of folklore, it is the basis for the creation and continuous functioning of other cultivated arts, such as: music, literature, choreography or other visual arts. Albanian folklore also represents a vital, early, stable and rich tradition. It is not a memory of the past, but it is alive and full of life and day by day it comes and is practiced articulated emotionally, developing, enriching and growing together with the Albanian people themselves, despite the many changes that are noticed in the realities of Albanian folklore in general. Through folklore, our people over the centuries manifested outstanding talent, spiritual expressive potential, great promotional skills. Albanian folk music tradition is generally an oral tradition based on the memory of the people; she did not feel the need for writing because she was born, spread and selected to live word of mouth and generation after generation, adapting to the needs and requirements of life.

Painting the Pictures

Abstract This article addresses the concept of exclusion from one’s ideal social realm, as seen in the characters of Jay Gatsby and Pat Hobby. Both characters find themselves obsessed with inclusion in groups in which they are not welcome. Gatsby, belonging to the world of new money, is enamored with joining the world of old wealth. Pat Hobby is a has-been; he once thrived in the world of silent film, but failed to transition to the “talkies.” Both men exist at the edge of a society that considers them outsiders. When presented with the failure to assimilate and be accepted, each engages in creating a façade that he feels can infiltrate his desired sphere. Gatsby hides behind the mystery of his wealth and the sumptuous parties he hosts. Similarly, Hobby can be considered a chameleon; he adapts his personality and purported skills to match any situation with which he is presented. As with Gatsby, however, his façade is compromised both by inner and outer conflicts, ultimately dramatizing Fitzgerald’s belief that our identities are not ours to invent. This article also aims to bring more critical attention to the Hobby stories; often ignored, these tales, when read with sympathy for the much-disparaged protagonist, show Fitzgerald’s creative and structural genius. In placing these stories in dialogue with Fitzgerald’s magnum opus, the comparisons elevate these later efforts by showing that they share with The Great Gatsby an exploration of selfhood and performativity.

A Política e o Drama da Existência no Nietzsche de Leo Strauss

Nietzsche's aversion to Christianity, democracy and socialism can be translated by his denial of egalitarianism. In fact, the philosopher sees in the feeling of secular hope and the loss of the agonistic aspect of existence, the most radical form of decadence. For his part, Leo Strauss sees in Nietzsche's attack on egalitarianism as a way of protecting modern liberal democracy from itself. However, for the Chicago professor, proposing a political regime from the Nietzschean conceptions would certainly not lead the world to another place, if not to barbarism. For Nietzsche exposes man to a brutish and inhuman truth, which most men can not bear. Thus, Strauss intends to use Nietzsche's lethal truths as a “toolbox”, his critique of modernity is fundamental to his overcoming nihilism and to the defense of the philosophical way of life, which implies acceptance of the drama of life as such how is she. That said, this study aims to show that: for Nietzsche the spread of the modern ideal of equality led the West to degenerate, by leveling all individuals underneath, transforming them into a herd, the birth of the last man was promoted, which makes it impossible the emergence of the creative genius that imposes its will to power, the Ubermansch. Whereas, for Strauss, the Pathos for radical equality as the supreme value of modernity, besides having been the cause of the major catastrophes of contemporaneity, makes the emergence of the “gentleman” (virtuous man), and with it, the search for the best society, the best regime and the best way of living.

Una reflexión sobre el cine japonés: industria VS Arte. [DOI:10.37785/nw.v4n2.a9

La industria cinematográfica japonesa fue una de las más potentes del siglo pasado. Además, el éxito alcanzado por algunas de estas películas en prestigiosos festivales de occidente fomentó una imagen snob, casi de cine de élite, en función de su elegancia visual y detallismo escénico. Lo verdaderamente paradójico es que el sistema de estudios de aquel país siempre apostó por entender el cine como un negocio a explotar, donde la pretensión artística, la denuncia sociopolítica o las complejidades narrativas, se veían más como un entuerto que como un activo. A lo largo de las siguientes páginas estudiaremos la historia de esta confrontación entre el conservadurismo industrial y el genio creativo de unos pocos directores. Aquellos que, precisamente, traspasaron las barreras de su sistema y se hicieron famosos en todo el mundo, pasando así a la historia del Séptimo Arte

Beyond the Color Line: A Postmodernist Reading of Ishmael Reed’s Flight to Canada

Though African American literature can be regarded by some theorists as a means of defining the racial self, a postmodernist reading of Ishmael Reed’s Flight to Canada delves into the intrinsic value of that literature which supersedes the traditional racial connotation ascribed to it. Reed not only castigates the metanarrative of the American cultural and democratic thought through the exposure of its inconstancies and the criticism of traditional ideas on race and ethnicity, but he also gives proof of his creative genius by operating a carnivalization of the novel genre itself.

Signaling Creative Genius: How Perceived Social Connectedness Influences Judgments of Creative Potential.

In today's knowledge economy, effectively signaling one's creative potential can be advantageous. Five experiments demonstrate that cues signaling a person's separateness from others (as opposed to social connectedness) boost evaluations of their creative potential. "Lone" targets-engaging in activities alone-were judged more likely to generate creative ideas compared with targets engaging in identical activities with others. This effect was explained by perceived social independence and was unique to creativity judgments-our manipulation did not influence perceptions of other positive attributes, including ability to generate practical ideas (Studies 1a and 1b). The effect of social independence on perceived creativity was not reducible to perceived nonnormativity and was attenuated when creativity was construed as requiring convergent thinking rather than divergent thinking (Studies 2-4). Findings advance our understanding of how individuals of varying degrees of social connectedness tend to be viewed by others, providing insight into observers' lay beliefs about creative potential.

The science of art: Leonardo Da Vinci and facial plastic surgery.

Purpose of reviewLeonardo Da Vinci possessed one of humanity's greatest minds, known for exploring the boundaries of art and science. The discipline of facial plastic surgery also relies on art and science for its advancement. This review focuses on key elements of Leonardo Da Vinci's work, and how they relate to concepts within facial plastic surgery.Recent findingsLeonardo Da Vinci was a self-taught creative genius. Common themes that permeated his art were those of proportion, perspective, light and shadow, anatomy, and science. These principles are reflected in key aspects of facial plastic surgery, such as facial analysis, human gaze, facial subunits, surgery of the craniofacial skeleton, and evidence-based medicine.SummaryLeonardo Da Vinci's approach to scientific inquiry and artistic beauty strikes a balance from which facial plastic surgeons have much to learn. In depth study of how Leonardo Da Vinci viewed the world furthers the analytical and creative sides of a facial plastic surgeon as well as informs their personal development.

Magic Realism in Flowers: Karnad’s Post-Modern World of Folkloric Fantasy

“Magic realism” is a recent literary technique that contains a latent amalgamation of fantastic or mythical elements into an otherwise realistically narrated fiction. The theme and subject of such a literary work are often imaginary, somewhat outlandish and fantastic and always reflect into a dream-like reverie. It further marks the miscellaneous use of myths, legends and fairy tales, and an expressionistic description of an arcane situation leading to the element of surprise or abrupt shock. In literary discourses, the term is primarily associated with the post-modern novel of the Americas. Girish Karnad’s dramatic monologue, Flowers, however, bears all the elements of this literary phenomenon. This short play could also be labeled as a dramatized novel and is a simple tale of a priest caught in an agonized conflict between his devotion to God and his love for a courtesan. However, Karnad’s creative genius turns this conflict into a scintillating portrayal of the sexual urge of a priest interspersed with his feelings of religious devotion and familial duties through the technique of magic realism and, in the process, questions god’s authority in the postmodern world. The play is an attempt by Karnad for the first time in his playwriting career “to focus on male than a female desire.” It presents an interesting picture of the bizarre human world full of magic and its realistic social impressions. The present article attempts to shed some light on this aspect of Karnad through the thematic exploration of the flowers.

The Labour of Literature in Britain and France, 1830-1910: Authorial Work Ethics, edited by Marcus Waithe and Claire White

Reviewed by: The Labour of Literature in Britain and France, 1830–1910: Authorial Work Ethics ed. by Marcus Waithe and Claire White Mark Allison (bio) The Labour of Literature in Britain and France, 1830–1910: Authorial Work Ethics, edited by Marcus Waithe and Claire White; pp. xv + 268. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018, £79.99, $99.99. “A literary man has often to work for his bread against time, or against his will, or in spite of his health, or of his indolence, or of his repugnance to the subject on which he is called to exert himself, just like any other daily toiler,” William Makepeace Thackeray observes in The History of Pendennis (edited by John Sutherland, [Oxford UP 1994], 450). Thackeray thereby situates his eponymous protagonist—and, implicitly, himself—in an age in which literary creation has been routinized and commodified: “When you want to make money by Pegasus . . . farewell poetry and aerial flights” (450). Yet the narrator cautions against excessive pity for “Pegasus,” for “there is no reason why this animal should be exempt from labour, or illness, or decay, any more than any of the other creatures of God’s world” (450). Though metaphorically harnessed, the writer claims as symbolic compensation a recognition of the social validity of his work and virtual fellowship with all toiling creatures. [End Page 142] This passage is but one of many that I felt compelled to revisit after reading Marcus Waithe and Claire White’s carefully conceived and richly rewarding edited collection, The Labour of Literature in Britain and France, 1830–1910: Authorial Work Ethics. Heeding the injunction of Margaret Cohen and Carolyn Dever, the editors stress the complex interrelations of the Anglo-Gallic literary spheres in the nineteenth century: “The national literary traditions of Britain and France can be understood to rely on one another, as much as for what each assimilated as for what each repudiated” (2). On both sides of the English Channel, writers inhabited a post-Romantic dispensation in which the topoi of “creative genius and meditative contemplation” were losing their symbolic efficacy, necessitating new modes of legitimation and inviting “analogies with other types of labour” (4). But labor was itself, of course, an unprecedently dynamic and volatile category within this period; consequently, authors conducted their analogical explorations within milieus destabilized by “staggered incidence of industrialization and political radicalism” (4). The essays in this collection investigate how a compelling array of British and French authors “projected and problematized their own activity against a shifting and contested understanding of what it means to ‘work’” (2). Waithe and White ingeniously mobilize the concept of “work ethics” to theorize these self-reflexive vocational endeavors (5). This phrase simultaneously refers to “how different writers approached their work” and to “different ethical inflections of literary labour” (6). This latter emphasis brings “the complex relations between formal work and social responsibility,” implicit in the very idea of vocation, into high relief (9). The resulting thematic constellation—France and Britain, literary labor, and work ethics—proves supple enough to allow this volume’s contributors to adopt a wide variety of approaches but sufficiently defined to ensure a degree of thematic cohesion that often eludes collections of this kind. Indeed, scholars assembling an edited text will profit by studying this book for its editorial sure-handedness. Whether motivated by egalitarian commitment or the association of the working classes with arduous exertion, many nineteenth-century authors imaginatively identified with the laborer, whether in the form of the so-called unskilled worker or the master artisan. The exemplary figure of Gustave Flaubert appears in both guises in this volume. In Patrick Bray’s exuberant essay, Flaubert is the self-described “casseur de cailloux” (common stonebreaker) pulverizing Romantic clichés and creating “undeniable beauty” from the resulting linguistic detritus (102). In his own contribution, Waithe persuasively argues that a stylized image of Flaubert as a strenuous craftsperson allows Walter Pater to “unite otherwise discrete elements within the field of literary composition: style, pain, heroism, martyrdom, demonstrable labour, and artisanal skill” (157). This evocation of Flaubert enables Pater to construe the aesthete as neither a dandy nor a decadent, but the bearer of a “unified sensibility” (163). As this phrase...

Домолчаться до стихов: «молчание» в жизни и творчестве М. С. Петровых

The motive and image of silence in M. S. Petrovykh’s lyrics are associated with her poetic worldview, her understanding of creative genius and social reality. “Silence” image is a leitmotif of her poetry, this image develops the lyrical story of the conceptual poem “One Thing I Want to Say to Poets...”, which reveals the author’s conception of creative and everyday behaviour. The paper describes M. Petrovykh’s biographical experience represented in her poetry, analyses the lexico-semantic level of the poems containing the image and motive of silence.

Screened Live: Technologically Reconfiguring Notions of the Author

The dramatic tradition suggests, for the most part, a progressive relationship between author, performer, producer and audience, in which the author/s originates the playtext, the performers develop a production, and the producer presents the outcome to the public. The arrival of theatrical performance and the fine art exhibition on cinema screens worldwide, the phenomenon of ‘live relay’ or the ‘as live broadcast’ in the arts, challenges this familiar perception of the author/production/audience relationship. The emergence of screening live performances in cinemas has modulated the once-traditional dramaturgical interaction between text, production, and audience. The ‘live relay’ tests the very way we think about theatre and performance. With its destabilization of production and audience spatio-temporal locators, the ‘live relay’ disrupts the vocabulary of theatrical description and it inflects both ontological and epistemological attitudes to the theatre-viewing of the past, the theatre-making of the present, and the interactions thereof. The live relay, moreover, causes disturbances within what can be considered the authorial field. If postdramatic theatre shifts the dramaturgical valency from playwright as creative genius to director as auteur, then the mediaturgy of the ‘live relay’ renders both of these models redundant. This article examines the proposition that the live relay has given rise to new authorial voices and bodies, those of the cinematic director and the institution. These are bodies and voices that need to be accommodated within the mediated and intermedial paradigm of screening live performance in cinema.

Romantic Remixers: Hidden Tropes of Romantic Authorship in Creators’ Attitudes about Reuse

AbstractThis article draws from data generated in existing studies in Australia and the U.S. to examine how creators describe themselves and their creative acts when they are recombining or trying to combine copyrighted work with their own work. It finds a surprising congruence of self-perception across very different copyright regimes and creative practices. An undercurrent of Romantic notions about the originality of creative genius runs through even cutting-edge digital practices. This attitude then bolsters strategies used by large media interests to expand copyright monopoly rights and extend them internationally. Results have implications both for policy and advocacy, in particular, how creators respond to campaigns for expanded copyright exceptions, and a reluctance by even remix creators to challenge the legal structures that restrict their creative practice.

Radical Voices in Indian English Poetry: A Study of the Poetry of Kamala Das

The creative genius of Kamala Das, one of the most prominent voices of protest in Indian English Literature is often compared to the American poet Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton as both of them used the confessional mode of writing in their poetry. Kamala Das, born in 1934 in Thrissur district of kerela emerged as a distinctive poetic voice with the publication of the first volume of her poetry Summer in Calcutta. In her poems Kamala Das has always raised a voice against the conventionalized figure of a woman, seeking a more dignified and honourable position for woman as an entity. In fact her poetry addresses the most critical issue in the contemporary society-the need to awaken the women. Her poetry collections include- Summer in Calcutta (1965), The Descendents (1967), The Old Playhouse and Other poems (1973), Tonight, This Savage Rite (1979), The Collected Poems (1984). My Story published in 1976 is her autobiography.