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Dalit literature is the articulation of protest and anger against the injustice and social exclusion the Dalits are subjected to in the caste-ridden, hierarchical society of India. The Dalit authors and critics argue that it is this protest and anger, a new literary strategy which can build the aesthetics of Dalit literature. Dalit literature, however, is yet to form a conceptual standard on which the Dalits can represent and universalise their experience of pain. Many Dalit poets have attempted to build a distinctive aesthetics through poetry. But poetry essentially related to emotion seems inadequate to build a conceptual framework which is essentially an intellectual phenomenon. Though Dalit writers resist the Sanskritised aesthetics of mainstream literature by using their own language, registers and idioms, they nonetheless partake of the mainstream aesthetics when they articulate themselves in poetry. Gopal Guru (2012) claims, "Poetry helps the Dalit in making connections through metaphors but not through concepts" (p. 23). My paper, however, will argue that as Dalit experience is at the centre of a distinct Dalit aesthetics, Dalit poetry based on rich experience can contribute to build a new aesthetics for Dalit literature. My paper will refer to a number of Bengali Dalit poets whose poetry can serve to build a separate aesthetics through poetic rendering of their distinct Dalit experience, conforming at the same time to many principles of mainstream aesthetics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Towards the end of his life and career, the poet John Hewitt (1907-1987) had become a celebrated elder statesman of literature and art in Northern Ireland. Alongside that of his contemporary, John Montague, his work was recognised as an important conduit for the later poetic flowering that occurred in Northern Ireland in the wake of the outbreak of the Troubles, as represented by such writers as Seamus Heaney, Derek Mahon and Michael Longley, among others. Perhaps best remembered for his advocacy of Ulster regionalism, Hewitt urged for the embrace and expression of an identity rooted in the province of Ulster (which spans counties in both Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic) that could bridge the sectarian divide between Catholic and Protestant communities. While certain aspects of his regionalist project gained currency, within his own poetry, a fully realised sense of achievement for his Regionalist goals fails to resonate. This paper intends to analyse one of the most significant reasons as to why that is, the poet's conception and depiction of the Catholic community, or the Celtic other. Through careful examination of some of Hewitt's poems that engage with or portray Irish Catholics, it will be shown that a sense of difference and distance could not be overcome and contributed to an inability to successfully integrate Protestant Planter and Catholic Gael identities in an Ulster regionalist ideal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to highlight the ecocritical dimensions of Jibanananda Das's celebrated opus 'Banalata Sen' by looking back at Natore. Using the rural place of Natore in Bangladesh metaphorically, the poet has established a profound rapport between human beings and nature's belongings. William Wordsworth wrote in his poem, 'Tintern Abbey', that "Nature never did betray the heart that loved her" (Wordsworth, 2000, p. 134) to bring forth the reciprocal mechanism of the Man-Nature relationship. And, indeed this line contributed immensely to the advancement of Eco-criticism. Despite the fact that the existing studies talk about the surreal and ideal aspects of the poem, this article presents a comprehensive review of Jibanananda Das's 'Banalata Sen' from an eco-critical point of view, where the existence of problematic anthropocene and the plight of nonhuman agency are being discussed. The eco-critical reading of the poem shifts our focus to two different and deeply entwined entities, Natore and Banalata Sen. Natore is a place of consolation and bliss, whereas Banalata Sen is catered as a panacea to the poet's sufferings with the aim of intensifying the interdependency and interconnectedness of the entities. Banalata Sen provides the poet with the joie de vivre on his inertia to renew his spirit. This eco-critical understanding of the poem unfolds the magnitude of the lady, who brings solace to the poet's worn-out soul and her association with nature. And it helps us understand the way this poem articulates ecological consciousness and the importance of the neighboring ecosystem in shaping human lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Li Bai's poems, the term yao or medicine is frequently employed as an idea-image. The meaning of yao can be further divided into four distinct types, each corresponding to its functions in different contexts. It represents the elixir found on Penglai Island, having the power to elevate a person to immortality; the elixir stolen from the Queen Mother of the West by Heng'E; the immortal herbs pounded by the Jade Rabbit; and the medicine used for treating diseases. In addition, Li Bai's poems also contain elixir liquid (danye 丹液), potable gold (jinye 金液), and other substances referred to as yao. Unlike specific terms like "cinnabar", these names are more general in nature. The medicines, their names, and the general terms in poems carry different emotional implications, e.g., his admiration for immortality, and a means to criticize his own time, to express his aspirations and lamentation over the passage of time. The "Yao" also serves as a symbol of healing and nourishment, especially in the context of friendship. All these points deserve to be meticulously explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In her article "Exotic Construction of an Ancient Oriental Sappho: On Rexroth's Creative Translation of Li Ch'ing-Chao's Ci-Poems and its Influences," Yuqun Fu discusses Li Ch'ing-Chao's Ci-poems and her identity as a woman intellect in the patriarchal and feudal Song Dynasty of China. Due to Kenneth Rexroth's feminist perspective and Sappho complex as well as his own pursuit to excel in the hipster stylistics of the newly prospering Beat writers, Rexroth turns to the Eastern women poets to fuel his own cause, especially in his idiosyncratic way of interpreting and translating Li Ch'ing-Chao. His translation focuses on gender identity and displays the manipulation of a mainstream culture to a nonmainstream culture. He misinterprets some frequent images and narrations in Li's poems by singling out some love poems and supplementing some sexual implications and hence shapes the peculiar imagery of a heterogeneous ancient Chinese woman figure with the bold and unveiled expression of her own bodily desires and feminist emancipation with the mysterious veil of ancient Oriental mysticism. His translation of Li has profound influences on his own poetry in terms of themes and writing techniques. In addition, his version of Li has influenced some of his peers and subsequent translators, some Beat writers, and contemporary writers in the U.S. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]