Spacing Places and Scaping Thoughts A Psychogeographical Study of Select Northeast Indian Novels

Abstract

The northeast of India is a geographical location comprising the states of Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Tripura, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, and Sikkim, that shares borders with foreign countries, namely China, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, and Bangladesh. The region is connected to the mainland India through a narrow strip of land metaphorically designated as the chicken s Neck . The politically strategic location of this geographical region with its rich natural resources and diverse history, culture and ethnicity has attained a unique complexity. The common perception is that of a distanced, troubled but beautiful region very different from the rest of India, engaged mostly in contestation and resistance. This understanding of India s boundary territory as a highly volatile and flammable homogenous extension of the country is the most misleading perspective about this region. However, in recent times, the notion about the reality of the northeast is being gradually comprehended. This has been made possible due to the innumerable scholarly discourses which have come up over the years about the eight states. Moreover, several authors and poets from this region have opened their lived worlds and experiences through their writings which has immensely helped to bridge the gap of understanding and feelings about Northeast of India. Motivated by the contemporary literatures of this region that bring out the nuances of the experiences of everyday lives of the people, in this thesis, I have attempted to make a study of the people and the places through the conceptual lens of psychogeography which posits a close interlink between human mind and surroundings. Since no such study had been taken up before as revealed through the extensive literature survey, the scope of this thesis has provided the fertile, phenomenological ground for probing the lived experiences of people and their spaces, thus, proving that the northeast of India is not just about the exotic and the violent. By applying several multidisciplinary..