Browsing by Author "Phuyal, Komal Prasad"

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On Flowers and Nations: Native Symbol in Ralph Waldo Emerson and Kshetra Pratap Adhikari
(Premier University, Chattogram, 2021-06) Phuyal, Komal Prasad
The local symbols laconically express the whole of the spirit of a nation in poetry as poetic expressions magnify even the tiny objects of nature to represent the complete picture of social sphere. American Romanticist poet and philosopher, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 -1882) and Nepali lyricist poet, Kshetra Pratap Adhikari (1943-2014) contemplate on the local flowers to transcend beyond the quotidian understanding and assert the aesthetic value of the native in relation to the national spirit. The sole purpose of both the poets remains the upholding of the beauty of the locally available symbols over the traditionally established images of canon that dictate the poetic imagination despite their staleness and predictability in poetic articulation. Emerson's "The Rhodora" (1834) presents a local flower over the traditionally established rose as a European symbol of aesthetics, while Adhikari's "Ma ta Laliguras Bhayechhu [I Happened to be a Red Rhododendron]"(ca. 1976) coins both the nation and personal romantic feeling into a single object that can spread itself across a variety of geographies . This paper seeks to textually analyze the two short poems to see the ways each poet develops a common poetic style to sing the person and nation through native symbols.
Resistance and/as Humanism: Birth of Agency in Rabindranath Tagore’s Mukta Dharo
(Premier University, Chattogram, 2023-04) Phuyal, Komal Prasad
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) celebrates resistance against the logic of the machine as an act of public welfare in Mukta Dhara (1922) in quest of human capability to bring about change in the existing order. The play places the natural flow of the waterfall as the central question in a tussle between two states: Uttarakut and Shiv-terai. The river, Mukta Dhara, flows from the northern mountains to the lower plains, sustaining the life in the plains. The technically advanced northern state, Uttarakut turns arrogant as it succeeds in erecting a dam across the w, aterfall, whereby imprisoning the flow and denying water to the people of the lower land. The central conflict results into the awakening of agency in Uttarakut in the struggle for justice for the weak. Despite the unending appreciation from the ruling elite for the machine above Bhairav temple in Uttarakut, the Prince Abhijit sees the embedded injustice of his own state upon the people of the plains. He consciously sacrifices himself setting the flow free. Abhijit’s resistance realizes Tagore’s deep conviction for humanity. By using close reading and textual analysis, this paper seeks to examine in the text two concepts: resistance and humanism. Primarily, the analysis presents the act of resistance as humanistic traits. Besides, it seeks to uncover the interconnectedness between the two concepts in order to see how each of them can independently stand as unique concept on their own. This paper examines the relationship between resistance and humanism in the backdrop of birth of agency to bring about deeds for public welfare and further interrogates resistance as an act of humanism.