www.literaryendeavour.org ISSN 0976-299X LITERARY ENDEAVOUR A Quarterly International Refereed Journal of English Language, Literature and Criticism VOL. VIII NO. 4 OCTOBER 2017 UGC Approved Under Arts and Humanities Journal No. 44728 CONTENTS No. Title & Author Page No. 1. Religion and Myth as Poetic Resources: A Study of Christopher Okigbo's 01-07 Labyrinths with Path of Thunder and Bate Besong's Disgrace: Autobiographical Narcissus - Tem Edwin 2. Three Women One Voice: A Critique on the Poetry of Mamta Kalia, 08-15 Gauri Deshpande and Kamala Das - Supriya and Sweta Singh 3. William Wordsworth's 'Ruined Cottage': An Eco-critical Study 16-19 - R. Saravanan and Dr. G. Somasundaram 4. The Sexual and the Spiritual in John Donne's Poetry: Exploring 20-23 "The Extasie" and its Analogues - Shantanu Siuli 5. The Metaphysical Poets 24-26 - Ashok Heeru Chavan 6. Genesis Myth and the Seventeenth Century English Literature 27-30 - Ashok Heeru Chavan 7. Anita Nair's Lessons in Forgetting: An Efficient Representation of 31-37 Intricate Nature of Parent-Child Relationship - Supriya Mohan Patil and Tripti Karekatti 8. Portrayal of Sexual Violence in Anita Nair's Lessons in Forgetting 38-40 - C. Chellappan and Dr. V. Nagarajan 9. The Politics of Empire Building: A Review of Arundhati Roy's 41-43 Power Politics - Avishek Chaudhury 10. Creating Self through Othering: The Cycle of Colonisation in 44-56 A Little Princess - Reeba Sara Koshy and Dr. Asha Susan Jacob 11. Subversion of Motherhood: A Study of Select Novels of Shashi Deshpande 57-60 and Yvonne Vera - Amogh A. M. 12. Locating the Dispersed: Portrayal of the Women in New Generation 61-64 Malayalam Films - Anjitha S Kurup 13. Salman Rushdie's Major Novels 65-67 - Raju T. Malagimani 14. U. R. Ananthmurthy's Samskara: A Duel Between Carnal Desire 68-72 and Elite Culture - Dr. Jagdish S. Patil and Mr. Kiran N. Khette 15. T. M. Aluko's One Man, One Wife: A Confrontation Between Traditional 73-77 Religion and Christianity - Dr. S. B. Bhambar 16. Political History Through Inverted Gaze: A Critical Study of 78-86 Kamila Shamsie's in The City By The Sea - Romil Preet Kaur 17. Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses 87-89 - Raju T. Malagimani 18. Interrelated Ways of Social Hierarchy and Historical Developments of 90-93 Jane Austen's Time - Ms. A. Sowmiya and Dr. S. Valliammai 19. Nayantara Sahgal as a Non- Conformist Writer with Special Reference to 94-97 Storm in Chandigarh and The Day in Shadow - Mrs. C. Sujatha and Dr. V. Ramakrishnan 20. Tradition and Modernity in Shashi Deshpande's Roots and Shadows 98-101 - Mr. M. Pandiarajan and Dr. V. Ramakrishnan 21. The Portrayal of Women in the Selected Novels of Shashi Deshpande 102-104 - Prof. Pandurang Rupnar and Dr. R. B. Chougule 22. Assertion of Self in Maya Angelou's Autobiography I Know Why 105-107 The Caged Bird Sings - D. K. Kamble 23. Quest for Cultural Idenity in Immigrant Land in Chitra Banerjee 108-111 Divakaruni's The Mistress of Spices and The Queen of Dreams - A. Xavier and Dr. V. Ramakrishnan 24. Human Encounters with Wild Creatures in the Select Short Stories of 112-119 Ruskin Bond - M. Richard Enrico and Dr. V. Nagarajan 25. Symbolism, Irony and Humour in Girish Karnad's Play Tughlaq 120-124 - T. Gnanasekaran 26. Effectiveness of Multimedia Tools on Second Language Learners at 125-128 College Level - A. Ramar and Dr. V. Ramakrishnan 27. Stylistic Analysis of Select Works of William Shakespeare 129-131 - Adel Saleh Naji Muthanna 28. The Effectiveness of Computer Assisted Language Teaching and Learning 132-134 in Developing Reading Skills of ESL Learners At Tertiary Level: A Study - S. Saravanan and Dr. G. Somasundaram 29. Mohare Hanumantharaya's Contribution to Hyderabad-Karnataka's 135-139 Liberation - Dr. J. M. Chandunavara 30. Mary, A Schizophrenic Character in Lessing's The Grass is Singing 140-142 - Dr. Mrs. Shaikh Ajaz Perveen Mohd. Khaleeludddin 31. A Critique on Ecofeminism 143-147 - Dr. Vasant G. Sanap and Mr. Manik Subhash Bhatane 32. Jhumpa Lahiri's Story: Interpretation of Maladies: An Analysis 148-150 - Dr. Khan Ansarullah Shafiullah 33. New Woman in Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House 151-152 - Dr. Vijaykumar Bandal 34. Multiple Voices of Futurist Society in Kim Robinson's Mars Trilogy 153-155 - Banasode R. S. 35. Namita Gokhle's Paro: Dreams of Passion A Symbol of Deliverance, 156-159 Self Quest and Anguish - Tabassum M. Inamdar 36. The Indian Diaspora: Searching for Uprooted Roots 160-164 - Dr. Pramod Ambadasrao Pawar 37. Feminine Fire in the Novels of Anita Nair 165-169 - A. Sundari and Dr. J. Mary Jeyanthi 38. A Crtique on Realism and Existentialism in the Novels of Anita Desai 170-177 - Mrs. Archana B. and Dr. Ramesh Rathod 39. The Locale: A Narrative Device in the Fiction of Vikram Seth 178-182 - Dr. Manisha F. Shah 40. The American Transcendentalists' Social Reforms 183-185 - Mr. C. S. Biradar 41. A Critique on Poverty and Village Life in Anita Desai's 186-193 The Village by The Sea - Mrs. Archana B. and Dr. Ramesh Rathod 42. Identity Crisis in Meena Alexander's Nampally Road: An Exploration 194-199 - Ms. Vijayalaxmi Patil and Dr. Ramesh Rathod 43. Jane Austen's Emma as a Representative Novel: An Overview 200-204 - Ms. Vijayalaxmi Patil and Dr. Ramesh Rathod 44. Cultural Recalibration into the Host Society: A Study of Diasporic 205-207 Dimensions in Sour Sweet by Timothy Mo and The Nowhere Man by Kamala Markandaya - MS. J. Madhumidha Stri 45. Using Comparison and Contrast in Teaching Plays 208-210 - Dr. M. Solayan Literary Endeavour (ISSN 0976-299X) : Vol. VIII : Issue: 4 (October, 2017) www.literaryendeavour.org 1 01 RELIGION AND MYTH AS POETIC RESOURCES: A STUDY OF CHRISTOPHER OKIGBO'S LABYRINTHS WITH PATH OF THUNDER AND BATE BESONG'S DISGRACE: AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NARCISSUS Tem Edwin, NJI, University of Buea, Cameroon, Central Africa Abstract: This article studies the selected poetry of Christopher Okigbo and Bate Besong by focusing on their exploration of religion and myth as creative resource. The paper argues that Okigbo and Besong, highly gifted poets, were able to blend these aspects from both domestic and foreign backgrounds in a manner that rendered their poetry provocative and sublime. They were revolutionary not only from the ideological standpoint, but in their ability to switch abruptly to distant cultures that rendered their poetry conceptually dense. Keywords: Religion, Myth, Aesthetics, Sublime. Introduction Christopher Ifekandu Okigbo (1932-1967) and Bate Besong (1953-2007) are two precocious African poets who defiled and established poetic conventions and built for themselves a poetic firmament which displayed an unusual mix of religion and myth in a way that made their poetry terse, provocative and sublime. Widely acclaimed as a “poet of destiny”, Okigbo, a young Nigerian poet whose talent blossomed in the 60s, was an adept in his vast experimentation with wide ranging poetic traditions as well as the cultural and political evolution of his country and Continent-Africa. Often finding it difficult to examine his own identity in isolation, he enlisted in the Biafra war of secession in July of 1967 and was killed in action in August of the same year. Bate Besong's talent was prodigious and in many ways radiated a similar creative sensibility like Christopher Okigbo whose poetry he studied in Nigerian Universities and whose personal life, like Wole Soyinka, he deeply admired having come into personal contact with the latter. An Anglophone Cameroonian poet whose writings blossomed in the 90s and 2000s, Besong wrote poetry that was quite fierce, modernist in outlook and experimented with various religions and myths. For both poets, the scholarly reception of their poetry was quite similar. D. S. Isevbaye observed in his study of Okigbo's Heavensgate that “this view of the poems as an impenetrable territory has been encouraged by reports of Okigbo's early view of poetry as a type of cult from which the uninitiated is excluded…and by cautious critical implications in which the critic and reader are unmasked as intruders” (1). This statement was further amplified by the poet himself when he remarked that “I don't write my poetry for non-poets” (4). Isevbaye observed that Okigbo's rather obscurantist mode of poetic discourse owe partly to his ability to creatively blend domestic and foreign myths as well as a certain religious eclecticism. Similarly, Shadrach Ambanasom asked: “Bate Besong: Is his Poetry too Difficult for Cameroonians?” The scholar observed that “Bate Besong is the most paradoxical Anglophone Cameroon writer today in the sense that his work attracts and repels at the same time. While his themes entice readers, his style alienates them, an erudite iconoclast with an exceptional range of vocabulary power” (92). While observing that Besong's poetry remains highly enchanting yet abstruse, the poet himself observed: “I am an inveterate experimenter with language. I will always deal with the internal conflict between the forces of good and evil borrowed from history and myth” (2). In the light of the views raised above, this paper operates on the premise that Okigbo and Besong's RELIGION AND MYTH AS POETIC RESOURCES: A STUDY OF CHRISTOPHER OKIGBO'S LABYRINTHS WITH PATH OF THUNDER ... 2 poetry draw from the complexity of religion and myth from both domestic and foreign backgrounds rendering their poetry occasionally sophisticated yet sublime. Discussion and Analysis Okigbo's poetry demonstrates the presence of a vast intellectual culture. His poetry often displays the influence of traditional African, Christian and classical myths with inspiration drawn from poets like T. S. Eliot, Gerald Manley Hopkins and Ezra Pound.