A.K. Ramanujan

A.K. Ramanujan was born in 1929, in Mysore, India (Wagoner). He graduated from Mysore University, where his father taught mathematics, in 1949 with a B.A. in English Literature (Ellmann, O'Clair, and Ramazani 439). After teaching for several years, he went back to school in order to study theoretical linguistics; he graduated from Deccan University with a graduate degree in 1958 ("A.K. Ramanujan"). When he was thirty years old, he moved to the United States and lived there for the rest of his life. Within a few years of the move he began to teach linguistics, South Asian languages and civilizations, and creative writing at the University of Chicago. In 1963 he earned a Ph.D. in linguistics at Indiana University (Wagoner). Throughout his life Ramanujan taught at several different universities, although he always stayed closely connected with the University of Chicago. In 1976, Ramanujan was granted the Padma Shri, which is an extremely honorable title awarded by the Indian government in order to recognize Indian citizens who have contributed greatly to culture (Ellmann, O'Clair, and Ramazani 439). In 1983, Ramanujan received the MacArthur Fellowship, which is an award that is given to U.S. citizens who are exceptionally talented at some form of creative art ("A.K. Ramanujan"). Ramanujan died in Chicago on July 13, 1993 ("A.K. Ramanujan").

Ramanujan's free verse poem "Self-Portrait" was written in 1966, when the author was in his late thirties and had been living in the United States for more than five years. This poem suggests that Ramanujan feels as if he is no longer an individual, perhaps because he is becoming more Americanized; he no longer feels Indian. Despite this, however, he can still see traces of his Indian heritage through his resemblance to his father if he looks hard enough.

Bibliography

Poem:

Ramanujan, A.K. "Self-Portrait." The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry. V olume 2. Eds. Ellmann, Richard, Robert O'Clair, and Jahan Ramazani. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc, 2003. 439. Print.

Biography:

Ellmann, Richard, Robert O'Clair, and Jahan Ramazani. The Norton Antholody of Modern and Contemporary Poetry. Volume 2. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc, 2003. Print.

"A.K. Ramanujan." Indian English Literature. Indian English Literature, 2006. Web. Mar 14 2011. http://www.indianenglishliterature.com/EminentAuthors/Ramanujan/.

Wagoner, Candy. "Attipat Krishnaswami Ramajan." Postcolonial Studies. Emory University, 1998. Web. Mar 14 2011. http://www.english.emory.edu/Bahri/Ramanujan.html