The Representation of the Ethnic Life-World of the Adis in Mamang Dai’s The Legends of Pensam: An Ecocritical Reading

Abstract

Literature in English from Northeast India has been as much stereotyped as the
region has been. Of course, a lot of fictional writing which has emerged from
Northeast India has been about “bloodshed and killings”, as Mamang Dai, one of the
foremost writers from the region, has pointed out in her article “On Creation Myths
and Oral Narratives”. This could be regarded as a natural spin-off of what the region
has witnessed and experienced on a regular basis for a long time: militancy, ethnic
strife, issues related to migration, and so on. However, to consider militancy, ethnic
strife and violence as the only defining thematic issues of literature in English from
the Northeast would surely be going a bit overboard. Even a cursory glance at the
writings in English from the Northeast reveals that the authors from the region have
been deeply concerned with the extremely important issues of climate change,
deforestation, poaching, environmental degradation, etc. Authors like Temsula Aao,
Mamang Dai, Aruni Kashyap, Easterine Kire, et al., have brought to the fore, through
their fictional work, issues regarding ecology and environment.