ISA; paper:World Literature

Q. Discuss the themes in world literature with reference in the poetry or texts in your syllabus in not more than 1000 words. 

World literature as a genre helps us understand new socio-cultural perspectives that has been untouched by the genre that covers the mainstream literature. It refers to the works written in a particular region that is circulated beyond the place of its origin. The themes we came across from the poems in our syllabus were loss/celebration of our identity, love, desire, dullness and misery, war and nature. Each of the poets expressed their pride in being part of a dying community. Judith Wright in her poem Bora Ring is sharing with her readers the fun they had when they got together around the bora ring to celebrate their aboriginal culture. Now that it is gradually diminishing, she is poignant. In Jean Arasanayagam’s poem Two Dead Soldiers, the poet brings up the events of the civil war that took place in Sri Lanka and writes about two dead soldiers on the battlefield. The Black July (1983) destroyed the harmony between the people living there. Many people had to flee while others were killed, thus, annihilating a particular community that had inhabited there for years. Here we see a loss of one’s identity. The Pakistani poet Kishwar Naheed in her poem The Grass Is Really Like Me writes a piece where she says she is like the grass that is trampled upon by others (men) but rises again. In her community where women are to be silent and unopinionated, her feminist and confessional poem speaks volumes of empowerment of women. The theme that stands out in this piece of Naheed is to pride in one’s identity and to embrace it. “But neither the Earth’s nor the woman’s desire to manifest life dies,” as Naheed writes, she is assuring her readers that women’s desires are desires too and it will never die. She says that “the grass is really like me (herself)” which stands up every time it is mowed down to level the earth. She is fighting to protect her identity from a society’s minority section. Shu Ting, the misty poet from Beijing, writes about the assembly line where all are in an assembly line and are continuously performing a monotonous task that is not their own. The main theme of this poem is the misery and the dullness of life. In the lines, “It’s not hard to feel for them; we share the same temp and rhythm,” she is empathizing with nature that is, like herself and the labourers, tired of doing the same thing over and over for the past years. She is in a miserable state as she doesn’t seem to enjoy her job. She, like the others, has lost connection from her feelings- “I’m numb to my own existence // I’m unable to show concern for my own manufactured fate.” In the closing lines of Gabriel Okara’s poem The Mystic Drum, he and the people of Africa let the western advancements take over and slowly eradicate their culture. Industrialization flourishes while the connection that the inhabitants had enjoyed with the nature was getting destroyed as we can see in the lines: “Then I packed my mystic drum and turned away; never to beat so loud again.” World literature writers’ works mostly revolves in and out on the theme of love. These writers use their imagery and a lot of symbolism and this is what makes their works interesting. Examples could be Okara’s The Mystic Drum and Wright’s Bora Ring where each of them expresses their love for their ancient customs. Other themes that we saw were the theme of misery and dullness, and war. Shu Ting’s metaphorical assembly line is a dull and exhausting experience that keeps on increasing the misery in their lives, where they’re not able to express their emotions. Two Dead soldiers evidently writes about the civil war in Sri Lanka while Naheed in her The Grass Is Really Like Me is mentioning a war within herself to stand up for her own rights and dignity. These themes were and are still relevant to most parts of the world as many nations are developing into a civilization that incorporates such themes and deals with such issues. 

• 10 Most Popular Literary Theme Examples – Writer's Edit (writersedit.com) 
• Tonight I Can Write by Pablo Neruda - Poem Analysis 
• World literature - Wikipedia
• Assembly Line by Ajay Benno, Nicolette Serratore, Wade Henery, and Ryan O'Connor by Ajay Benno on Prezi
• Poetry Analysis: Gabriel Okara’s “Mystic Drum” | Rukhaya M.K 

  

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This is my Intra-Semester Assessment task when I studied in Carmel College, Nuvem, Goa. I was very proud of my research skills that gave me this essay. This essay was written in 2021.