In Order to be Great, One must be a Woman: Reading Sanjukta Dasgupta’s Dilemma: A Second Book of Poems

Sa？etak Poets play an important role in alighting the lamp of the human mind. The technique of writing poetry comes with ‘creation’ which is the primacy of knowledge and Sanjukta Dasgupta’s poetry is the source of light vindicating her formidable creativity and apt awareness as a ‘progressive [woman] writer’ of Indian Writings in English. Women writers contribute towards the female literary tradition of ecriture féminine, strengthening the genre of gynocriticism. Elaine Showalter comments ‘women writers…found [themselves]…without a history, forced to rediscover the past anew, forging again…the consciousness of their sex’ facilitating the patriarchal interrogation through women’s writings, accelerating the birth of a woman authored literary canon. It has enabled them to break the silence towards an egalitarian world. This essay explores the ‘micropolitics’ of an urban environment in Dasgupta’s Dilemma: A Second Book of Poems, and critically reconnoiters her entelechy to observe life and interrogate the stereotypes society imposes upon women