The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : New look at a modernist

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Monday, Feb 18, 2008
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Karnataka - Bangalore

New look at a modernist

Staff Reporter

— Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

remembrance: U.R. Ananthamurthy presenting the first copy of the book ‘Prathima Loka’ to Lalitha Adiga, wife of the late M. Gopalakrishna Adiga, in Bangalore on Sunday.

BANGALORE: In laidback Bangalore, to see a packed hall early Sunday morning is something else. The occasion was the launch of a collection of essays attempting a relook at the writings of Gopalakrishna Adiga, the man hailed as the pioneer of the Navya (modernist) movement in Kannada poetry.

“Pratima Loka: M. Gopalakrishna Adiga — Maru Odu,” edited by S.R. Vijayshankar, was released on the eve of the late litterateur’s 91st birthday at the Indian Institute of World Culture here. Jnanpith award recipient U.R. Ananthamurthy and literary critic Ki. Ram Nagaraj released the book.

In his talk after launch, Dr. Ananthamurthy spoke of how constantly poetry is analysed, so much so that the poem is invested with meanings more of the interpreter than the poet himself. “Through our interpretations of poetry, we try to master it. Little do we realise that a poem is above any comment,” he said.

Prof. Ki. Ram Nagaraj said that when a poem is analysed, certain aspects are focussed on and the rest left out. The interpretation then is the analyser’s alone and does not encompass the entire poem, he said.

Editor of the book Mr. Vijashankar said that nearly 60 serious literary pieces had been written in recent times, analysing Adiga. “This says for itself what importance Adiga holds for writers of this generation,” he said.

The book, he said, was a collection of responses of young writers to the writings of Adiga. “Through his language and his novel way of looking at experiences, Gopalkrishna Adiga has shown the way for writers after him,” Mr. Vijashankar said.

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