Dharwad hosts discussion on ‘Gopalakrishna Adiga and T. S. Eliot: Tradition and Modernity’

Dharwad discussion explores Gopalakrishna Adiga's modernist poetry and its connection to T.S. Eliot's tradition and modernity.

Writer Mahantappa Nandur said that Gopalakrishna Adiga’s poetry continues to attract readers because of its thematic distinctiveness, subtlety, innovation and modern sensibility.

Delivering a special talk on ‘Gopalakrishna Adiga and T. S. Eliot: Tradition and Modernity’ organised by Dharwad Katte on February 22 in Dharward, he said P. Lankesh’s remark that Adiga ‘opened the eyes of a generation’ was apt. However, he expressed the view that Adiga’s Vedic consciousness imposed certain limitations on his poetry.

Writer V. T. Nayak noted that Eliot infused English poetry with modernity, revitalised verse drama, and provided a strong traditional foundation for literary criticism. Eliot, he said, possessed a clear framework regarding his religious, political and literary commitments, and addressed many crucial problems of the modern world through his poetry and plays.

Presiding over the programme, Professor Basavaraj Donur stated that Adiga was among the foremost modernist poets in Kannada, and that no other Kannada poet engaged with modernity as effectively as he did.

Responding to the criticism regarding Adiga’s Vedic consciousness, Donur said it was not a limitation, but an integral part of his poetic sensibility. Just as Eliot had a Catholic consciousness, and writers like Shakespeare and Tolstoy reflected Christian consciousness in their work, Adiga’s Vedic awareness was natural to his cultural context. However, he noted that such consciousness must attain universality.

Donur further observed that Eliot addressed Europe’s cultural and religious crises in his poetry, and even turned to the Upanishads while seeking philosophical resolutions. Eliot’s influence, he said, was global, including on Adiga. Yet, Adiga transformed that influence into his own distinctive poetic voice. He suggested that a comparative study could be made between Adiga’s Bhoomigeeta and Eliot’s The Waste Land.