The Female Voice and Sexual Autonomy: A Gendered Reading of Kamala Das’s Confessional Poetry

Abstract

Kamala Das, one of India’s most powerful and controversial poets, redefined the contours of Indian English poetry through her confessional style and bold articulation of female desire. Her poetry dismantles patriarchal constructs of womanhood by foregrounding the female voice as a site of resistance, identity, and self-realization. This research paper offers a gendered reading of Kamala Das’s confessional poetry, focusing on her exploration of female sexuality, emotional vulnerability, and the quest for autonomy. By analyzing selected poems such as An Introduction, The Looking Glass, The Old Playhouse, and Composition, the study examines how Das uses personal experience as a feminist tool of protest against the suppression of women’s desires and subjectivity. Das’s poetry not only challenges male-centric notions of morality and purity but also reconstructs the female body and voice as instruments of liberation.