Prof. Jyotirmoy Prodhani, North-Eastern Hill University
Living Root Bridge, Meghalaya. Credit: Wikipedia
The theme
With about 225 tribes of the 450 tribes of India and about 200 languages spoken in this region, Northeast is often described as a place of ‘mindboggling heterogeneity’. Comprising the seven sisters of Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Tripura, Mizoram and the recently included Sikkim, Northeast has ancient legacies, though the region has gained significant visibility in recent times as a violence-ridden territory with robust political contestations. At the same time, the region has also drawn attention following a unique body of literary manifestations which has almost been canonized in the realms of academics as the ‘Northeast Literature of India’. As pointed out by Pradip Acharya, this literature addresses a set of realities that comprises ‘affection, memory and community. This literature has two distinct dimensions–one is the ‘literatures from Northeast’ belonging essentially to a polyglossic landscape, which include the lay of literatures in the vernacular languages of the region either in written or in oral forms; and the other, a relatively young but a powerful literary terrain, which has primarily emerged in the English language. Notably, the Anglophone literature from Northeast has given a common identity to the ethnopolitan collectivism of this region.
Northeast as a discursive terrain has reflected an awareness to redefine the self in terms of altered ontology as against the dominant paradigms essentially predicated upon orientalist as well as the pan-nationalistic metanarratives. In this context literature of Northeast has emerged as a major site of assertion and resistance forming a key foundation of what can be termed as the Northeast discourse comprising other forms of cultural transactions as well, which include, inter alia, theatre and performance, cinema and mass media, ecology and folklore, popular culture and sports, food and textiles, art and music that celebrate its inherent polysemy countering the unipolar discourses of single stories. This special issue invites critical papers on Northeast literature and its varied dimensions preferably from multidisciplinary perspectives focusing upon the broad subthemes suggested below which is indicative though not exhaustive:
Indigenous ontology and Northeast literature
Northeast literature and cultural discourses
Northeast literature and ethnopolitanism
Northeast literature and translations
Anthropocene, eco-humanities and Northeast literature
Non-human subjectivities in Northeast literature
Mnemonic praxis and Northeast literature
Native historiography and Northeast literature
Peace and conflict in Northeast literature
Nationalism, ethnonationalism and Northeast literature
Gender intersectionality and Northeast literature
Theatre of Northeast
Sports and Northeast discourse
Cinema, popular culture, mass media and Northeast literature
Important dates:
Submission of Abstract with keywords of 200 words: 5 October 2021
Notification on the selected abstracts: 20 October 2021
Submission of completed paper (4000-5000 words) 31 December 2021
Book Reviews (1200-1500 words) of recently published books, not more than 2 years old, on Northeast Literature should be sent for consideration by 15 December 2021.
Publication: Volume 12, Number 1, January-March, 2022.
