Dhanya A.P1 & Sudakshina Bhattacharya2
1Dept of English and Humanities, Amrita School of Arts and Science, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, India. ORCID: 0000-0001-5979-0260. Email: dhanya25ajith@gmail.com
2Dept of English and Humanities, Amrita School of Engineering,Coimbatore. Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, India. ORCID: 0000-0001-7032-0737. Email: s_bhattacharya@cb.amrita.edu
Volume 11, Number 3, October-December, 2019 I Full Text PDF
DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v11n3.05
Abstract
The usual prognosis about literature from the North Eastern regions of India invokes a set of linear, preconceived notions about identity questions, cultural and political conflicts, myths, oral traditions and magic realism. This standpoint has been strongly contested by writer, Easterine Kire, who has revealed a veritable and profound consciousness, embedded deeply in the Angami Naga tradition. That there is an intense and significant version of ‘mysticism’, hitherto unrealized, has been clearly illustrated in her novel When the River Sleeps. The novelist is successful in searing up this notion and illustrating a wonderful vignette of Naga mysticism. Based on Carl Jung’s concept of individuation and making of the ‘self’, the focus of this paper is mainly on the praxis of Kire’s protagonist, Vilie, who delves deeper into the realm of the unseen, intuited by centuries of collective unconscious that helps him to savor mystical experiences. The paper seeks to trace the process of Vilie’s individuation, from a hunter, to a self wedded man of the forest, a conservationist, redeemer and finally to a mystic. The principles of Jung can be aptly applied to the various stages of his transcendence. Such a study can also help to vindicate the stipulated notions about the Naga people as overtly aggressive, belligerent head hunters and insurgents.
Keywords: North Eastern regions, mysticism, Angami Naga, individuation, collective unconscious
