Vakrokti Poetry Analysis

Project Title: Understanding Vakrokti and Russian Formalism: A Comparative Perspective

(ii) Introduction Language of literature in one way or the other differs from the common day to day language of normal communication. Indian Poeticians state svabhavokti as the traditional and common form of language while Vakrokti as the marked or literary language. Wordsworth at one hand opines that the language of literature should be simple and easy to understand and believes that a poet is a man speaking to men therefore he must make use of such a language as is used by men. For him such use of language being emotional and passionate comes from the heart and goes direct to the heart. Therefore it helps in communicating essential truths about human

Indian thinking regards poetry primarily as a linguistic organization. According to it, the language of poetry is based on vakrokti. Literally vakrokti means a indirect speech. Raghavan calls it to be a ‘striking, deviating expression’. S.K De refers it to be ‘a kind of heightened expression’. One can find the detailed treatment of this term in Kuntaka’s Vakroktijivita besides being introduced in the works of Dandin, Bhamah, and Bhoja. Some scholars are of the view that the earliest traces of theory of vakrokti can be found in Bharata’s treatment of laksanas in his Natyasastra. Bhamaha provides a prominent place to the term and identifies it with atisayokti (Hyperbole). Dandin distinguishes literary compositions in terms of vakrokti and svabhavokti and says that ‘slesa’ (paronomasia) adds beauty in vakrokti. Anandvardhana calls it an expressed figure and supports Bhamaha. Rajshekara calls it by the name of auktika i.e. pertaining to a saying. Abhinavagupta treats vakrokti as ‘a delectable singular meaning’, ‘involving hyperbolical expression by virtue of figures and attributes’ (gunas). Bhoja defines poetry in terms of vakrokti and designates it as ‘an extraordinary, rounded expression’ (visista

The approach is concerned with specificity and autonomy of language of poetry. The framework for analysis of literary language is provided by it. It lays stress on functional roles of literary devices. The contributors of this group with their individual identity do not follow any unified doctrine but in one way or the other they base their analysis on the principle that literature has an element of observation and requires literary theory. They regard the artist as a constructor- a proletarian producer of crafted items. They, therefore, insistently lay down that the attention should be paid to his technical ability, to the form he creates. As such they look upon art as a device, a technique. Jakobson focus on the phonemes of language, or functional speech sounds and on the sound relations that characterize phonetic system (Correlations and symmetries). The research will make the comparison of the two leading theories one of Sanskrit and one of