Jayaprabha

Jayaprabha (born 1957) is an Indian critic and poet writing in Telugu. She is considered a pioneer of the feminist movement in Telugu literary criticism and poetry.[1][2][3] Jayaprabha's poetry focusses on women's issues, their problems and stregnths and often attacks established gender norms.[4][5]

Biography

Jayaprabha was born on 29 July 1957. She did her master's degree in Telugu literature and acquired a Ph.D. from Osmania University for her thesis on the progress and status of Telugu drama.[6] She currently lives in Secundrabad.

Professional career

In 1981 Jayaprabha and K. Satyavathi started a feminist monthly Lohita. Her first collection of poems "Yuddhonmukhamga" (Towards War) was published in 1984.[7]

Jayaprabha's second book of poems "Vaamanudi Moodo Paadam" (Third foot of Vamana) was published in 1988. This collection contained two of her landmark feminist poems 'Chupulu' (Stares) and 'Pytani tagaleyyali' (Burn the saree). Chupulu translated as 'looks' or sometimes 'stares' is a poem about the male gaze. It begins with the poet-persona describing the assault of stares she endures daily and ends with the poet hoping for the day when women can return the stares and reclaim public spaces for themselves.[8][9] In 'Pytani tagaleyyali' (Burn the saree) Jayaprabha equates the saree with confirmity to traditional gender norms and says women must abandon the saree in order to break free from traditional gender norms.[10][11]

In 1988 Jayaprabha published "Bhavo Kavitvamlo Stri" a critique of women in Telugu romantic poetry. The study criticised the representation of women in the works of major male poets. Considered a pioneering work of feminist criticism of Telugu literature, it attracted both controversy and accolades. For a while it was prescribed reading in Bangalore University.[12]

In 1991 another collection of poems "Ikkad Kursini Varsham, Ekkadi Maghanidi?" (The Rain that Falls Here, Where is The Cloud From?) was published.[13] She also published a revised version of her Ph.D. thesis on Telugu theatre "Naalugo Goda" (Fourth Wall) in the same year.

"Unforeseen Affection And Other Poems" was published in 2005. It contains a selection of her Telugu love poems translated into English by P. V. Narasimha Rao, former Prime Minister of India.[14]

Her poems have also been published in numerous national and international anthologies.[15]

Selected works

Poetry
  • Yuddhonmukhamga (1984)
  • Vaamanudi Moodo Paadam (1988)
  • Ikkad Kursini Varsham, Ekkadi Maghanidi (1991)
  • Unforeseen Affection And Other Poems (2005)
gollark: Btw I use arch.
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gollark: You should probably try and not blind yourself, still.
gollark: Don't your eyes do some focusing themselves too?
gollark: You would need lasers of multiple different wavelengths for that, right? Which would make it quite hard/expensive to get decent protection for.

References
  1. Kurian, Anna (5 October 2006). Texts And Their Worlds - I Literature Of India An Introduction. Foundation Books. ISBN 9788175963009.
  2. "Poets translating Poets - Poets - Goethe-Institut". www.goethe.de. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
  3. Kakatiya Journal of English Studies. Department of English, Kakatiya University. 1 January 1994.
  4. Kurian, Anna (5 October 2006). Texts And Their Worlds - I Literature Of India An Introduction. Foundation Books. ISBN 9788175963009.
  5. Kakatiya Journal of English Studies. Department of English, Kakatiya University. 1 January 1994.
  6. "jayaprabha". tramesh.tripod.com. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
  7. Tharu, Susie J.; Lalita, Ke (1 January 1993). Women Writing in India: The twentieth century. Feminist Press at CUNY. ISBN 9781558610293.
  8. Prasad, Amar Nath (1 January 2003). New Lights on Indian Women Novelists in English. Sarup & Sons. ISBN 9788176256049.
  9. Kurian, Anna (5 October 2006). Texts And Their Worlds - I Literature Of India An Introduction. Foundation Books. ISBN 9788175963009.
  10. Saccidānandan (1 January 2001). Indian Poetry: Modernism and After : a Seminar. Sahitya Akademi. ISBN 9788126010929.
  11. Bonnie, Zare; Afsar, Mohammed (1 April 2012). "Burn the Sari or Save the Sari? Dress as a Form of Action in Two Feminist Poems". ARIEL. 43 (2). ISSN 0004-1327.
  12. Tharu, Susie J.; Lalita, Ke (1 January 1993). Women Writing in India: The twentieth century. Feminist Press at CUNY. ISBN 9781558610293.
  13. OpenLibrary.org. "Jayaprabha". Open Library. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
  14. "The Daily Star Web Edition Vol. 5 Num 575".
  15. "Poets translating Poets - Poets - Goethe-Institut". www.goethe.de. Retrieved 8 October 2016.



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