Beyond The Waste Land: A Critique of Maja Herman Sekulice’s “Out of the Wasteland” and Poetry of Dr. J. S. Anand

Abstract

The paper examines the strategies of interaction with—and moving beyond—the text in two contemporary poets: Maja Herman Sekulic and Dr. J.S. Anand, looking at their invoking Eliot's The Waste Land as a way that turns both works on medium level reminders or allusions by adapting them to (their) respective othernesses. The research aims to answer the following questions: In what ways do these two poets make use of The Waste Land in their poetry, and for which reasons are such allusions employed within contemporary praxis? The texts that will be analysed are Sekulic's "Out of the Wasteland" and Anand’s The Dominion of the Netherworld, with a mention to “Ground Zero.” This essay argues that Sekulic's "Out of the Wasteland" functions both as an homage and a parody to The Waste Land, suggesting how contemporary life has formed into decay Eliot never could have envisioned. The first stanza disparages the mimesis of The Waste Land yet questions anyone remembering modernist poetry to be able to capture a fractured and disenchanted contemporary existence. Using suggestive imagery and an even heavier reliance on Eliot, Sekulic makes the point that there is no need to represent modern life (a lesson its critics appear yet unwilling or unable to comprehend), with her tone subtler than ever in leaving readers be subjected only by sorts of ridiculousness. On the other hand, Anand's work is also examined in relation to how he confronts The Waste Land with what epitomizes all that is awful about existence today. Both poets are shown to use Eliot's text as a base from which they not only critique and reflect upon the escalating disaster of contemporary existence but also remake The Waste Land in terms relevant to current global anxieties.