Identity Exploration and Representation of Motherhood in the Poetry of Ranu Uniyal

Abstract

Ranu Uniyal, one of the important personalities of confessional mode, is always under review for her obsessive openness and pervasiveness, but she reaches her destination by displaying the sterling image of patriarchy. Uniyal’s poems not only present the everyday lived reality of ordinary women but also the strong independent women having power and who must outbrave the societal regulations and norms to assert their identity as human beings full of love and affection. Ranu Uniyal’s poems incorporate the strong experience both as a mother and as the daughter of powerful mothers whose personalities shape their identity as women. Among the modern Indian poets who are writing in English today, she has been ranked with such poetesses of dissatisfaction and discontent as Kamala Das. By engaging with the everyday life of her mother and her motherhood, the poet tries to understand the reality of universal motherhood in a poetic way. The studies of Ranu Uniyal’s poems add a new dimension to Indian poetry in English through the subtle and honest probing of man-woman relationships. She does not debunk the whole ideology of motherhood in her writing. Instead, her critical understanding of motherhood paves the path for women’s agency, autonomy, and identity regarding motherhood.