Aestheticism vs. Philosophy: A Reading of Kumaran Ashan's The Fallen Flower

Abstract

Kumaranashan is one of the most popular figures in Malayalam Literature. He was a champion of the underprivileged and a great visionary. He gave a new direction to the classically structured Malayalam poetry through his exposure to English Bangali and other streams of literature. He also played a pivotal role in introducing the spirit of modernity, revivalism and renaissance in Malayalam literature. Ashan"s works are widely translated into many languages and many of them are relevant and universally significant even today. The present paper is an attempt to read Ashan"s The Fallen flower; one of his most creative and thematically challenging works. While, the symbol of flowers is mostly used by poets of various generations to deliberate upon different shades of the concept of beauty, Ashan here uses the symbol of fallen flower to dwell upon the evanescent nature of human life and to create a strong moral vision in his readers. Though Ashan is widely studied and discussed in Malayalam, an analysis of the present kind attains great significance in English, especially in the present context of postcolonial exchanges and universal appreciation. The researcher uses available critical materials and translations to analyse, the philosophical, technical, social and political relevance of the work.