‘I envision the woman as a fluid entity
and also as a creative feminine energy’, says Lopamudra Banerjee, Author,
Poet
Interview
by Amit Shankar Saha
Amit Shankar Saha: Congratulations to you on the publication
of your second collection of poems “Woman and Her Muse”. The volume is perhaps
in mixed genre of poetry and memoir. How will you like to classify it?
Lopa
Banerjee: Thank you very much, Amit. Yes, my
newest book ‘Woman and Her Muse’ is in its cumulative essence, a collection of
poems, long and short, prose-poems based on art, photography, travel and cinema
and also a few short memoirs/personal essays interspersed in between the
poetry. The inspiration for this kind of format for my book came from my
reading of some books by American and Western authors in the recent years where
there is fluidity of creative expressions and an experimentation in terms of
combining both the aspects of storytelling and narrative detailing as well as
poetry writing. As you know, my debut memoir/autobiographical narrative
‘Thwarted Escape’ which came out from Authorspress in 2016, was both a poetic
memoir/narrative journey in its structure. Since then, I had been dying to
write another version of my sojourns, in which I could pay tribute to the world
of art, literature, cinema, a diet in which I grew up since my formative years,
a journey in which I have matured, evolved into a woman as well as an artist.
And this sojourn couldn’t have been woven in any linear pattern, that would
have made the depiction artificial and constricting. Hence, this amalgamation
of poetry and prose, which has helped me to craft this book more organically
and cohesively. Of course, more meaningfully, at least in my eyes.
Lopa: I believe my identity as a woman and moreover, an immigrant
Indian woman has shaped many of my aesthetic, artistic and metaphorical
expressions which I have given birth to, till date, either in the books which I
have written or in the scattered poems and stories that I have penned. ‘Woman
and Her Muse’, however, I would say, as the title hints at, is more about the
identity of a woman as a creator, an artist, a writer who, while seeking her
muse and while crafting the poems and personal stories, questions her own
gender and the predominant patriarchy which compels her to pick up her pen. For
example, there is poetry and prose centered on the image of Durga, based on veteran
naturalistic painter Monica Talukdar’s celebrated Durga painting, poetry inspired
by the female body as depicted in museums, poetry and prose on a
dancer/ballerina, a singer in a bar, on Madam Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert,
among others.
At the same time, it is also an aesthetic journey where she embraces
the sights and sounds, paintings and visuals of her diasporic surroundings in
India and the US, making them her triggers that let her explode with her
writings, weaving together diverse genres, across geographies and
boundaries.
Amit: Your poems are deeply personal
and yet are identifiable. But to give a specific title “The Woman and Her Muse”
to a volume points to something that you may like to speak on. Can you
elaborate?
Lopa: The title ‘Woman and
Her Muse’ is actually taken from one of the poems in the first volume of the collection,
which reflects on how poetry and artistic expressions are born in my mind, and
how it evolves over the course of time. For example, I am quoting these lines:
“Finding bounty, silence, music, /Haunted grounds/Melancholy, hangover/ In
between voyages. The artistry of an old, crumbling house, /A grand minaret, /A
fallen leaf,/ Or a doomed woman,/Or star-crossed lovers, A raped, ravaged
corpse of a girl,/ Or a dead bard,/Her muse.” In it, I am referring to the
never-ending series of experiences, stark, vivid, enriching and ravaging, both
in my familial home and the world at large, which form a
stream-of-consciousness and just flows, uninhibited. You can say it is both a
feminine experience and an artistic/aesthetic experience.
Amit: You have been writing for some length of time now and
you have written in different genres. Was this compilation a conscious effort
or just what you gathered in your fecund period of writing?
Lopa: To speak the truth, I would say both of it is true. Many of
the pieces of the collection just sprouted from me effortlessly, especially the
short poems which have some autobiographical elements in it, the prose-poems
and vignettes which I had crafted during my various trips and travels to places
both in India and US. On the other hand, some long poems and prose-pieces have
emerged from my conscious effort at portraying a story/narrative where my muses
have compelled me to rise from my complacence and write away with almost a
vengeance. The same is true for my other books, apart from the translation
works, which are mostly conscious efforts.
Amit: You have a Masters in English literature and a
Creative Writing degree. You have been awarded The Chanticleer Prize for your
non-fiction manuscript and you also won the Reuel Prize for poetry. How has
your studies in English Literature, your experience of studying creative
writing and your practice of writing for magazines and journals and social
media poetry groups influenced your craft as a writer?
Lopa: The studies of English literature
since my formative years in college and university in Kolkata, especially of
poetry, drama and fiction has shaped my persona in many inexplicable ways. It
started as a formal study which was a necessity back then, but then the essence
of it all grew on me with time, as I was born and evolved as a writer in the
later years. The study of contemporary American English literature with an
emphasis in creative nonfiction writing in the University of Nebraska has given
me further impetus to first envision myself as a writer and then to gradually
work towards attaining it, and then social media came in my life, like many
others, as an added stimulus to flourish as a poet, an artist and a
storyteller. Various prestigious online magazines and journals, including Caf├й
Dissensus, About Place, Setu mag and Tuck Magazine have given me the much
needed platform to showcase my work and virtual groups including The
Significant League, among others, gave me some useful writing prompts and
advices, and the validation to continue my journey with my head held high, so
it is definitely very precious to me.
Amit:
There are elements of place, family, relationship, friendship, personal
tragedies, spirit of overcoming adversities and a look towards the future which
may be better for your daughters in your poems and writings. Your stay in
Kolkata, your diasporic life abroad, and your Bengali-Indian identity coupled
with your extended stay in America define your poems. How has all these aspects
shaped your writing?
Lopa: Yes, the elements of place, family and
relationships have shaped both my persona and my writing, and I would say, made
me an author with a leaning towards diaspora writing, both in poetry and prose.
In my memoir ‘Thwarted Escape: An Immigrant’s Wayward Journey’, there is this
emotional urgency to go back to my Kolkata roots time and again, and rediscover
my childhood, my identity as the daughter.
In my newest book ‘Woman and Her Muse’, there is a
section, ‘KOLKATA: The poetry in which I breathe’, which is quite self-explanatory.
Like an old lover, Kolkata keeps coming back to me and reclaims me.
Amit:
It is often said that for a woman it is her body that is the space of
enunciation. How will you react to that?
Lopa: As
for myself, my body and femininity has shaped the course of many of my
writings, especially my poetry, which has been both an inward and outward
journey. I envision the woman as a fluid entity and also as a creative feminine
energy, and it is her body which can be both a text, a manifesto and a piece of
art. In my book ‘Woman and Her Muse’, there are several poems, including the
ones written in response to female sculptures in an art museum. In them, I have
combined both art, aesthetics and the spirit of revolt.
Amit:
Which is your favourite piece from your book ‘Woman and Her Muse’ and why?
Lopa: I
would say my poetic tribute to the charming, tomboyish Durga of Satyajit Ray’s
epic film ‘Pather Panchali’ (adapted from Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay’s novel)
and the dialogue poem between the couple Apu and Aparna (from ‘Apur Sansar’,
another masterpiece by Satyajit Ray from the Apu trilogy, penned by
Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay), because the pieces were brimming in my
consciousness for many days, but finally emerged quite effortlessly. If you ask
me, I see glimpses of both Durga and Aparna in myself. The raw volatility of
Durga and the pensive feminine energy of Aparna have inspired me in many ways,
and so have the feisty fire within Maya Angelou and Draupadi, the wife of the
five Pandavas in the epic Mahabharata, so they have their unique spaces in this
book.
Another one, ‘Topography of the Fertile Mind’, a
memoir which is very close to my heart because I have written it for my
daughters, taking cues from their real-life dialogues, conversations about
their ever-expansive world, where I am both a mother, an artist and a truth-seeker
of the intricate artistry of this world where all three of us fit into our
respective metaphorical spaces.
Amit:
You are also a translator and your second book of translation of Tagore titled
“Tales of Transformation” is recently out. Which is more satisfying – original
writing or translating? Why?
Lopa: Both original writing and literary translation
have their own charm, their own challenges, and both have been sources of much
joy, both have their own unique learning curves. In original writing, you are
triggered by a mysterious, tantalizing source within your own being and start
an onward journey with that trigger, while in translation, the literary
creation of someone else becomes your muse, compels you to transcribe and trans-create
its beauty and essence in another language, that becomes a bridge between the
original writer and the reader of the translated work. Both are immensely
rewarding experiences to me.
Amit:
How do you see your relationship with Tagore and your task of translating his
work?
Lopa: Translating Tagore’s work had rather come to me
as a promise that I had silently made to my mother during the day of her
demise, as she had been a teacher of Bengali literature and introduced me to
his literary gems since the time I was in elementary school. Over the times,
Gurudeb Rabindranath Tagore has grown on me like old roots, like a religion
quietly observed and internalized. His music, writings, art and above all, his
existence within me, I would say, is like a subterranean flow which would never
stop and give me sustenance for this lifetime. Hence, even attempting to
translate his words is like finding my own resonance in this universe.
In my book ‘Woman and Her Muse’, I have a memoir
dedicated to Gurudeb Tagore, and I would like to quote a few words: “Like the
deep, dark tsunami brewing within your widowed Binodini, within your Giribala
and Haimonti, I too bite my brittle, cracked self every now and then, running
back and forth through the chaotic mosaic of my womanly self which you had
tried to dissect when you wrote the Every Woman’s story in ‘Shadharon Meye’
more than a century ago.”
Amit:
Various poetry groups in India have sort of revived the interest in poetry
which at one point in time was thought to be losing its impact on a new
generation. But it seems to be no longer so. How do you see the poetry scene in
India, especially Kolkata, vis-├а-vis USA?
Lopa: In Indian writing, poetry is heavier, with
oriental richness and delicate word-flow embedded in its core and images, while
the American poets I am encountering now or reading recently are more
minimalist in their expressions, use precarious words and visuals which are
more raw, edgy and provocative. Both have their unique charm and essence,
actually. Recently, in a few poetry and spoken words artists’ group in various
places in the US, I have quite spontaneously spoken about the richness of South
Asian poetry, the poetry in Indian writing in English, which has been vastly
under-represented in America. It has been a tremendously enriching experience. In
Kolkata, the poetry groups have revived the art of poetry tremendously, and I
feel elated to be a small part of this revolution during my annual trips to the
city.
Amit:
As a successful writer what advice will you give to aspiring writers?
Lopa: Success is just a subjective and relative
concept, and I do not know whether I can really be termed as successful. What I
am doing is just living my dream, enriching my life in as many ways as I
possibly can. Hence, I will reiterate what I have already said in my other
interviews. Just recognize your inner voice and strive to chisel your voice
with every poem/story and evolve more and more with reading other authors,
classics and contemporary. It is utmost important to build your own voice, your
own distinct style, which will grow on you, not overnight, but gradually,
organically. Writing is also a solitary process, like meditation and not many
people will understand your creative pursuit. It is okay, just forge on. There
will always be somebody who is reading your words and a resonance is created,
without you knowing it.
BIOS:
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| Amit Shankar Saha |
Dr. Amit Shankar Saha is a faculty member in the Department of English at Seacom Skills University. He did his PhD in English from Calcutta University in 2010. He is also a researcher, a short story writer and a poet. His research articles have appeared in journals and anthologies nationally and internationally. His short stories and poems have been published in periodicals and books both in India and abroad. He has won prizes at a number of writing competitions which include Poiesis Award for Excellence in Literature (Short story-2015), Wordweavers Prize (Poetry-2011, Short story-2014), The Leaky Pot - Stranger than Fiction Prize (2014), Asian Cha – Void Poetry Prize (Commendable mention-2014), Reuel International Prize for Poetry (Shortlisted-2016). Dr. Amit Shankar Saha is also the co-founder and coordinator of Rhythm Divine Poets, a Kolkata-based poets group dedicated to the promotion of poetry.
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| Lopamudra Bannerjee |
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