Title: Koku? and the Cartography of Invisible Fear: A Postmodern, Comparative And Multi-Critical Reading of Sourindra Barick's Koku?
Authors: Dr. Santosh Kumar Nayak
Volume: 10
Issue: 7
Pages: 272-278
Publication Date: 2026/07/28
Abstract:
Sourindra Barick occupies a distinctive position in post-modern Odia literature as a poet whose imagination transforms myth into an instrument of contemporary cultural criticism. His poem "Koku?," included in the celebrated collection Anubh?rata (1990), exemplifies this artistic vision by creating one of the most haunting symbolic landscapes in modern Odia poetry. Although the poem appears to narrate the nocturnal arrival of a mysterious demonic presence in the legendary city of Dw?rak?, its true significance lies far beyond mythology. Koku? gradually emerges as an invisible metaphysical force that infiltrates not merely geographical space but the psychological, ethical, historical, and existential dimensions of human civilization. The mythical city becomes a metaphor for every civilization, while Koku? evolves into a universal emblem of fear, alienation, moral disintegration, spiritual exhaustion, and the subtle corruption of consciousness. The poem thus abandons conventional narrative realism and constructs an open symbolic universe in which readers continually negotiate multiple layers of meaning. This article critically examines Koku? through the theoretical perspectives of postmodernism, existential philosophy, symbolic criticism, and archetypal literary analysis. It argues that Barick radically redefines the traditional image of the demon by presenting evil not as an external monster but as an invisible psychological and civilizational condition. Through remarkable symbolic economy, mythic reconstruction, paradoxical imagery, rhythmic repetition, and suggestive ambiguity, the poem dismantles the binary oppositions between myth and reality, history and present, self and other, visible and invisible. Rather than offering moral resolutions, the poem compels readers to confront the unseen forces that silently inhabit modern existence. Consequently, Koku? stands as one of the finest achievements of postmodern Odia poetry, revealing how mythology can become an enduring language for interpreting the crises of contemporary humanity.