Reading of The Hollow Men in the light of Abhinava gupta’s Dhvani Theory

ABSTRACT

Artistic works such as literature has always played an essential role in influencing human lives. It has twin folded purpose as on the one hand it instructs mankind about morality and on the other it leaves a reader or spectator with a pleasurable feeling. Many studies have been made in the East as well as in the West concerning the essence of literature. Abhinavagupta, an Indian aesthetician in the Theory of Suggestion (Dhvani Theory) discusses essential elements required in any work of literature to leave a lasting impact on reader. He was of the view that a litterateur enjoys reading a work when it is laden with suggestive meaning as it leads to evocation of rasa. Thomas Stearns Eliot in the poem The Hollow Men limns a despairing, despondent and pessimistic picture of modern men.

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