A.K. Ramanujan and Anne Carson: Literary Profiles

A.K. Ramanujan (1923–1993)

Born in Mysore, India, A.K. Ramanujan grew up immersed in the diverse languages that later informed his life’s work as a poet, translator, and linguist. He spoke Kannada in the streets, Tamil with his mother, and English with his father. He was educated at Mysore University and Deccan College; he later traveled to Indiana University for graduate studies and taught at the University of Chicago starting in 1961. He was a recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, and in 1976, the Indian government honored him with the Padma Shri for distinguished service to the nation.

Poetic Philosophy and Influence

Ramanujan affirmed that “cultural traditions in India are indissolubly plural and often conflicting.” His poetry embodies this complex intercultural mixture within India and across much of the contemporary world. His work reflects the influence of modern English-language poets such as W.B. Yeats, Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, and Wallace Stevens, while drawing on the vivid metaphors, flowing imagery, and spare diction of ancient and medieval South Indian poetry.

A poem such as the wittily titled “Elements of Composition” recalls a traditional vision of identity as implanted in fluid, concentrically arranged contexts, while simultaneously suggesting a postmodern vision of the self as decentered, composite, and provisional. As Ramanujan emphasized, “India does not have one past, but many pasts,” which he composes and decomposes in his poetry.

Anne Carson (1950–)

Born in Toronto, Canada, Anne Carson grew up in Ontario. She is a Canadian poet, essayist, translator, and professor of Classics at McGill University and the University of Michigan. Along with her poetry, she has published books of criticism on classical literature and translations from Greek.

Themes and Notable Works

In The Glass Essay, a long poem that reflects on the dislocation of identity through time, love, and madness, she vividly narrates the end of a love affair, a visit with a difficult mother, and the degeneration of a father with Alzheimer's in a nursing home. Into this semi-autobiographical tale, she weaves commentary on the writings of Charlotte and Emily Brontë. Carson’s poetry bridges the gap between private narrative and philosophical speculation, between self-excavation and literary-critical analysis. Her poems are lucid in feeling and intense in thought.

She has won several prestigious prizes, including the MacArthur Fellowship (2000), the T.S. Eliot Prize (2001) for The Beauty of the Husband, and the Griffin Poetry Prize (2001) for Men in the Off Hours.

Selected Works

• Odi et Amo Ergo Sum (1986)
• Glass, Irony, and God (1992)
• Autobiography of Red: A Novel in Verse (1998)
• The Beauty of the Husband (2001)
• Men in the Off Hours (2001)