Towards a Poetics of Home in Anglophone Naga Fiction

Authors

  • Shelmi Sankhil

Keywords:

Easterine Kire, naga, home, fiction, hermeneutics

Abstract

This article explores an emerging shift in the poetics of home within Anglophone Naga fiction, focusing on the transition from a traditional Naga conception of home-in-the-village to an alternative conception that deterritorialises and substitutes the sacrosanctity of natal village. Through a close reading of two novels by Easterine Kire, this article explores the emerging paradigm shift in the notion of home in contemporary Naga society (fiction) and its hermeneutical viability for exposition of complex themes like conflict, violence, insurgency, trauma, love, etc., in Anglophone Naga fiction.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Shelmi Sankhil

Dr. Shelmi Sankhil teaches Comparative Literature & Translation Studies in the School of Letters, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University Delhi. His research interests include, Anglophone Naga literature, literatures from the Northeast of India, hermeneutics, fantasy literature and mythology. He writes poetry and fiction when inspired, and has published a collection of short stories called Flame on a Hill: A Collection of Stories (2021). Sankhil also composes songs and music which he produces and performs in Lamkang Naga language.

References

1. Ao, Temsula. These Hills Called Home: Stories from a War Zone. Penguin India, 2005.

2. Geertz, Clifford. The Interpretation of Cultures. Basic Books, 1973.

3. Jeon, Kyoungho. “The Life and Culture of the Bajau, Sea Gypsies.” Journal of Ocean & Culture, 2, 2019. 38-57.

4. Kamei, Achingliu. “An Ecocritical Study of Easterine Kire’s When The River Sleeps and Son of the Thundercloud.” Veio Pou (Ed.) Keeper of Stories: Critical Readings of Easterine Kire’s Novels. Maine: Highlander, 2023. 201-214.

5. Kire, Easterine. Son of the Thundercloud. Speaking Tiger, 2016.

6. ____________. When the River Sleeps. Zubaan, 2014.

7. Menezes, Vivek. “Naga Writer Easterine Kire’s Clear Bright Sound Over a Sleeping World.” Scroll, 20 May 2021, https://scroll.in/article/995300/naga-writer-easterine-kires-clear-bright-sound-over-a-sleeping-world.

8. Muehlebach, Andrea. “Making Place” at the United Nations: Indigenous Cultural Politics at the U.N. Working Group on Indigenous Populations.” Cultural Anthropology, Volume 16, Issue 3, 2001. 415-448.

9. Tellis, Ashley J.M. “Mediating the Naga Struggle in Easterine Iralu’s A Terrible Matriarchy and Temsula Ao’s These Hills Called Home.” Eastern Quarterly, Vol. 5, Issue 1, April-June, 2008. 34-42.

10. Wijunamai, Roderick. “Understanding Naga Cosmology Through Easterine Kire’s Fictional Narratives.” Veio Pou (Ed.). Keeper of Stories: Critical Readings of Easterine Kire’s Novels. Maine: Highlander, 2023. 29-42.

11. Yembuu, Batchuluu. “Mongolian Nomads: Effects of Globalization and Social Change.” Margaret Robertson and Eric Tsang (Eds.). Everyday Knowledge, Education and Sustainable Futures: Transdisciplinary Approaches in the Asia-Pacific Region. Springer, 2016. 89-105.

Downloads

Published

2026-09-05

How to Cite

Sankhil, Shelmi. “Towards a Poetics of Home in Anglophone Naga Fiction”. Contemporary Literary Review India, vol. 13, no. 1, Sept. 2026, pp. 73-89, https://www.literaryjournal.in/index.php/clri/article/view/1549.

Issue

Vol. 13 No. 1: CLRI February 2026

Section

Research Papers

License

Copyright (c) 2026 Shelmi Sankhil

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Before you submit your article, you must read our Copyright Notice.