25th Annual Student Research Conference
Remembering the Past: A Psychoanalytical Analysis of The Half-Inch Himalayas
Kelsey E. McGovern
Dr. Hena Ahmad, Faculty Mentor
The poems, "Snowmen," "Cracked Portraits," and "The Dacca Gauzes," from Agha Shahid Ali's collection of poetry entitled, The Half-Inch Himalayas, emphasize how heritage embodies a family's many generations. The imagery in the three poems epitomizes the legacy of the speakers' ancestors, as illustrated in the following lines from the poem,"Snowmen": "Their heirloom, / his skeleton under my skin, passed/ from son to grandson,/ generations of snowmen on my back." These images delineate what allows the speaker to merit each ancestor's story. Our speaker implies that the generations that have come before him have created the man that he is today. This paper will offer a comparative analysis of the three poems drawing on theories of immortality using psychoanalytic theory.
Keywords: poetry, psychology, Agha Shahid Ali, The Half-Inch Himalayas
Topic(s):English
Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 410-4
Location: VH 1228
Time: 3:15