‘John Donne’s poetry was both misogynistic and mystical’: Katherine Rundell kicks off JLF 2023
"Love can be an answer to a question that can't be articulated but can be felt," said English writer and academic Katherine Rundell
Katherine Rundall with Nandini Das (Source:
Udbhav Seth) The Jaipur Literature Festival 2023 began today with a talk on 16th century poet John Donne between English writer and academic Katherine Rundell and critic Nandini Das, in which they discussed his writings on love and religion, his relationship with women, and his relentless linguistic experimentations. Rundell, who has penned many critically acclaimed children’s books, deep-dived into Donne’s life and work for a biography, SUPER-INFINITE: The Transformations of John Donne (Farrar, Straus and Giroux ), that was published last year.
Rundell said that Donne’s poetry can be both “wild, rakish and misogynistic, often objectifying female bodies” and also run with a streak of “mystic, religious verse… whereby he imagined that love might be the place where you can escape the confines of everything. Love can be an answer to a question that can’t be articulated but can be felt.”
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