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Shvoong Home>Books>Poetry>Abstract on “Return” by Eunice De Souza Review

Abstract on “Return” by Eunice De Souza

Book Review   by:akso6o175     Original Author: Andy Kester Sawian
  • Summary rating: 5 stars (16 Ratings)
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  • words:600 
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Structured within the frame of five divisions, this is a poem about nostalgia and recovery. It is concerned not only with the memory of the speaker’s individual experience but is designed as a re-visitation that draws out issues of cultural identity and difference. ‘The old wrought-iron gate has gone with the tall tangled grass and the mosquitoes. The priest is chanting his blessings on the stone of the new building’ are images that have relevance only in the way they function in the register of the speaker’s memory; physically, the place has changed beyond recognition. The performance of rituals during the commencement of any construction; an image suggesting the changing times and transformation of the place to where the speaker returns.
‘Perhaps enjoyment should have no object’ is a counter to the argument that happiness is materially driven; the sources of joy lie beyond material objects, in this case, in memories and reminiscences that cannot be understood in terms of objects. ‘Shehnai’ is a traditional musical instrument, one most commonly associated with the playing of tunes of marriage songs. ‘Sarla Devi, Kusum Bala, Rani Devi’ are names of women aimed at suggesting the ordinaries of their existence; here, they stand for prostitutes who have refused to subscribe to the social expectations and have exhibited great courage in trying to overturn the stereo-type. ‘You study law you hear catcalls in the street drums and bells behind your books’ is an image that conflates the determination of the girls with the social obstacles that they have to overcome in order to move forward. ‘Innuendoes of college clerks are the sexual allusions disguised under social rhetoric primarily addressed to girls who visit public places.
‘Tuka’ refers to Tukaram, one of India’s renowned saints; Tukaram is said to have been inattentive to familial needs, something that De Souza examines here critically. ‘Pandarpur is the site of a great temple and a place of pilgrimage associated with Tukaram. The poem may be read as an exercise in feminist reading of social reality, but its implications extend beyond the experiences of women alone. Each of the sections focuses on the aspects of life where women are either subjects of oppressive social structures or marked by some sense of inadequacy. Their positions are brought about by cultural conditions that are embedded in traditions having long histories. The return of their figures from the forgotten registers of history thus enables the speaker to highlight issues that are otherwise ignored or by-passed in conventional narratives of social life.
Published: November 10, 2010   
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