THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Writer and Travancore Devaswom Board president K Jayakumar on Friday said that in an era when global capitalism and consumerism dictate what people buy, think, see and read, it is understandable that some may question the relevance of poetry. The purpose of poetry, he said, is to give people a reason to live.
He was speaking on the purpose of poetry in our times at the Hrdayakumari Endowment lecture, organised by the Department of English and Research Centre at the Government College for Women.
"Are relevance and purpose the same? They are relative, but not identical, because everything with a purpose may not be relevant. There are many instances in life where something has a purpose but may have no relevance at all and vice versa. So the prevailing fact is only that poetry has ceased to have any relevance. Purpose is the function of the creator, while relevance is manufactured or created by the reader," he said while delivering a lecture.
"The purpose of a poet writing a poem now will be different from a poet who wrote poems in post-partition India. There are so many points in history that you cannot help but go through them and experience the pain and aches of those moments. Poets have written across periods of history for different purposes, but the purpose shifts over time." he said.
"What is the purpose of poetry in this phase of history? What are the hallmarks of our times? The present period of history seems to have no value for beauty or empathy. In this era, what should poets do? A time has come when we are suffering. Our times are different from the truth because we are living in a false truth," he added.
Prof Chitra Thrivikraman Nair, principal, Government College for Women, Dr Annamma Joseph, former head of the Department of English, Government College for Women, and others spoke at the event.
