This book showcases the diverse literary traditions from India’s Northeast and their shared connections and lineages. It critically analyses a selection of literary works from authors and poets from this region and the hegemonies of language, ethnicity and politics that have framed these voices.
As a region with rich cultural and ethnolinguistic diversity, Northeast India’s literature is representative of varied histories, languages, socio-cultural and religious practices. The book highlights the distinct use of language, forms, cultural symbols and metaphors which articulates the unique experiences of conflict, beauty and culture in this area. Focussing on the translingual and transcultural aspects of these literary works it examines the dynamics between literature, language and their socio-cultural influences. The book pays attention to themes of representation, identity and power to showcase voices and perspectives of dissent, criticism and introspection. It explores contemporary critical approaches to literature from the Northeast, by re-examining the idea of the centre and the periphery and the position of subaltern literary voices.
This book will be of interest to students and researchers of literature, language, cultural studies, postcolonial studies and South Asian studies.
Edited by:
K M Baharul Islam (Indian Institute of Management Kashipur India)
Imprint: Routledge India
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
Weight: 453g
ISBN: 9781032225302
ISBN 10: 1032225300
Pages: 16
Publication Date: 29 January 2024
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
List of Figures. List of Contributors. Preface. Introduction: Canon Formation and Literatures from India’s Northeast: Some Reflections PART 1: LITERATURE FROM NORTHEAST INDIA 1. Love in the Conflict Zone: Negotiating Spaces in Davidson’s Gay Short Stories 2. From Legend to Fiction, the Politics of Representation: A Study of Indira Goswami’s Thengphakhri Tahsildarar Taamor Toruwal (2009) and Bidyasagar Narzary’s Birgwsrini Thungri (2004) 3. Writings from the 'Periphery': Folktales to Other Forms of Literature of the Paite Tribe of Manipur PART 2: PERIPHERAL VOICES 4. Play and Performance in Twenty-First Century Assam: Narratives from the Margins 5. Subaltern Mentality and Literary Engagements: Positioning/Positionality, Identification/Identity in Select Poetic Voices from Northeast India 6. The Char and the City: Reading Miyah Poetry 7. Pitting Irony against Aggression: Miyah Poetry as a Challenge to the Dominant Assamese Discourse 8. The Ground Beneath Our Feet: Miyan Poetry and Politics of Othering in Assam PART 3: REVISITING THE SUBALTERN: CRITICAL APPROACHES 9. Mythology, Contemporary Issues and Writers’ Response: The Manipuri Experience 10. Narrativizing Aging and Dementia: Reading Anuradha Sarma Pujari’s Jalchabi through the Lens of Gendered Gerontology 11. Literature from Northeast India: The Problems of Categorising PART 4: LITERATURE AS SOCIO-POLITICAL EXPRESSION 12. The Subaltern Gandhian Discourse in Virendra Kumar Bhattacharya’s Mritunjaya 13. The Road Not Taken: An Alternative Understanding of the Literature from Northeast India 14. From Apocryphal Orality to Textual Veracity: The Translation of the Subaltern Voice in Easterine Kire’s Writings. Index.
K M Baharul Islam is the Professor and Chair of the Centre of Excellence in Public Policy and Government at the Indian Institute of Management, Kashipur, India. He is also the Chairperson of the Communications Area. He was a Fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study during 2016–2018 and did his study on Translingual Literature from Assam. He is a Fellow at the US India Policy Institute in Washington, DC, and KAICIID Dialogue Centre in Vienna. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland in March 2020.
