Representation of Bangladeshi Everyday Culture in Selected Poems of Kaiser Haq

Abstract

Literary works have always been an avenue to represent the culture of a society, time, and place in which they are produced. The present study is an attempt to read selected poems of Kaiser Haq in order to make sense of the culture of Bangladesh and the cultural identity of its people. Haq's selected poems from Pariah and Published in the Streets of Dhaka introduce the readers with cultural artifacts like -lungi, muslin sari, Dhakai sari, roadside tea stall etc. In addition, through a lively representation of ordinary life the poems help the readers to discover how the culture goes through uncertainty and changes with the emergence of new cultures in a continuously developing country. Informed by Raymond Williams’ critical study “Culture is Ordinary,” this thesis aims to explicate the ordinary aspects of Bangladeshi culture mirrored in Haq’s selected poems.