27th Annual Student Research Conference
Agha Shahid Alis The Half-Inch Himalayas: A Modernistic Bricolage in a Postmodernist Context
S Saleha Jaweid
Dr. Hena Ahmad, Faculty Mentor
The Half Inch Himalayas is Agha Shahid Alis transcultural response to a lifetime of self-imposed exile from his homeland. There is a deliberate mixing of the local and the foreign, the old and the new, the spiritual and the physical as the poet splices diverse traditions and histories to create a vivid landscape containing multiple ideological and cultural polarities which coexist within his own self. This mosaic of identities within Ali is further highlighted by the accentuation of the postmodernist context of globalization with the use of modernistic poetic style elements to create a temporal suspension within the time frame of the events underlying the poetry. The focus is on modern, postmodern and post-colonial themes, particularly the heightened isolation of the self in an increasingly fragmentary yet globalizing world, marked by nostalgic memory.
Keywords: Modernistic Style, Postmodernist Context, Poetry, Metaphysical
Topic(s):English
Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 110-3
Location: VH 1236
Time: 8:30