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Editorial

Sreetanwi Chakraborty
Chief-Editor- Litinfinite Journal
Assistant Professor, Amity Institute of English Studies and Research, Amity University Kolkata. West Bengal, India.

Mail ID: litinfinitejournal@gmail.com | ORCID ID: 0000-0002-2936-222X

The recent studies and research on biodiversity, climate change, ecological and environmental crisis, depletion of the forest covers and ozone layers, and the problematic level of the Anthropos are some of the factors that are largely represented in many of the postcolonial writings. While the challenges to the Anthropocene are becoming more complex and multilayered, there is a growing sense of responsibility that is getting attached to postcolonial literature. It is true that the Anthropocene always challenges the set patterns of our thought, reflecting and conceptualizing narratives that are fraught with multiple interpretations. Along with this, there is also an addition to the idea of local planetarity, and the concerns about the earth and the globe. At the inception of the postcolonial writings, and the major works of Edward Said, Gayatri Chakraborty Spivak, and Homi Bhabha have contributed a lot in terms of understanding the crossroads of postcolonial writing. As Laura Brueck and Praseeda Gopinath highlights in their book The Routledge Companion to Postcolonial and Decolonial Literature:

“At this critical historical juncture an increased emphasis on indigeneity and settler colonialism around the world demands a reevaluation of the hegemonic project of the nation and postcolonial approaches that focus on the nation.” (Brueck and Gopinath 1971)

The current issue of Litinfinite Journal attempts to Narratives of Nature: Representations of the Environment, Urban Ecology and Planetary Crisis in Indigenous and Postcolonial Literatures. Dr. Anu Lakshmi Babu’s paper concentrates on Animating the Land: Native American Spirituality, Identity and the Struggle for Sovereignty in Contemporary Literature. She has highlighted how for Indigenous people, the land is not a commodity but a living entity, a source of life, memory and identity that shapes their worldview and sustains their traditions. This connection fosters a land-based identity rooted in reciprocal respect, stewardship and sacred kinship with nature. However, centuries of colonial intrusion have sought to disrupt this relationship through forced land dispossession, cultural erasure and religious conversion, leading to ongoing struggles for sovereignty, self-determination and cultural survival. Aswathi K R, and Prof. B J Geetha’s paper highlights in its interesting title Industrial revolution as the harbinger of climate crisis – The Anthropocene epoch in Edasseri Govindan Nair’s “Kuttipuram Palam”. “Kuttipuram Palam”, as the author shows, was written in 1954 and it is a prime example of the Anthropocene epoch as the poem features the fears of the poet for the future. Seventy plus years after the poet expressed his anxiety, the inhabitants of the planet behold the Anthropocene epoch manifesting in all its diverse forms. The next research paper is titled Aligning Women with Nature: An Ecofeminist Critique of Tagore’s Three Women. Here the author Bhaktinath Barman has discussed the ‘Nature’ and ‘Woman’ both are systematically substantiated in the current academia with regard to ecology and environmental sustainability. Ecocritical scholarship in recent times has achieved a ‘significant’ momentum due to the perpetual conflict between the rapid growth of modern technological advancement and a desire for sustainable development. Ecocriticism as a critical theoretical foundation has outgrown into multi-faceted vistas of knowledge such as Deep Ecology, Anthropocene, Third World Environmentalism, Ecofeminism. The next paper titled Wounded earth; Wounded bodies: Submerged Knowledge and Feminist Resistance in Oceanic Spaces by Catharinal Silvia M is a study on ecofeminism and the Blue Humanities have offered critical tools for interrogating the co-constitutive oppressions of ecological degradation and gendered violence. Yet, alone, each field leaves epistemological gaps. Ecofeminism, as first articulated by Françoise d’Eaubonne, links the domination of nature with the subjugation of women under capitalist-patriarchal structures.

            The next few papers are also a critical and analytical study of the ecology, environment and the facets of planetary crisis. Dr. Manish Prasad’s research paper titled Decoding the Unthinkable: Cultural Dynamics and Mythical Representations of Nature in Verrier Elwin’s Select Tribal Folklores attempts to highlight the folklore concerning the Myths of Middle India which was published in 1949. He shows in his paper how the present tribal folklore is a Dhulia myth from Karondi, Madhya Pradesh that deals with trees: The wife of Mirchamal Dano, Buchki Rakasin, was a strange woman. She never bore a child; she did not even have a monthly period. The Dano got her a lot of medicine and called many medicine men, but it was no use. After this, the next paper titled Disclosing the Double Discourse of Terror and Tradition of the North-East: A Selective study of Robin S. Ngangom’s Poetry by Dr. Masoom Islam is a veritable understanding of poetry from Northeast India that is not homogenous but heterogenous. It is homogenous in respect of its geographical location, forests’ flora and fauna, indigenous life and lifestyle, the rootedness to the soil and the pristine past of its populace. On the other hand, it is heterogenous in respect of its land, locality and livelihood which is marked as per the variety of ethnicity and ethnic culture, customs, rites, rituals, belief in myth and mythology. The next paper for this volume is titled Storied Lands and Silenced Voices: Reading Mamang Dai’s The Black Hill through the lens of Terristory authored by Prajnaa Ananyaa, Amarjeet Nayak is a study of Mamang Dai’s The Black Hill (2014), a novel set in the nineteenth century in the region now known as Arunachal Pradesh, home to several Indigenous communities, including the Idu Mishmis of the Dibang Valley, through the lens of terristory, a concept rooted in Indigenous relational ontology that understands land and narrative as inherently interconnected.

            While studying the narratives of ecology, environment and the Anthropocene, we go through one more research paper titled Nature Narratives in Northeast Indian Literature: Eco-Discourse and Cultural Perspectives by Subrata Barman discusses northeast Indian writing in English has often been misunderstood as dominated by political conflict and insurgency. However, to look closely we find a strong ecological consciousness embedded equally as a prominent feature in their literature. Critics note that authors from Northeast India often “(…) portray the land through a wide range of images of rivers, trees, hills, tradition, culture, myth, and legends,” making ecology a central concern of their literature. There are also two book reviews, one by Dr. Ritu Kamra Kumar, titled The Banter and the Bond: A Tapestry of Tender Tales in Din about Chins by Santosh Bakaya and the other Folklore and the Anthropocene: A Review of The Way to Rainy Mountain, by Scott Momaday written by Samantha Robin Christopher. Each of these reviews have interwoven strands of cultural and social narratives, often imbibing the deepest aspects of negotiating with the concerns of the environment.

            I hope our readers, scholars, researchers and faculty will derive the necessary academic nourishment from Litinfinite Vol. 7, Issue 1. I express my heartfelt thanks to all our esteemed editors and contributors. I offer my sincerest thanks to Penprints Publication, for their constant technical support.

Thanking You,

Sreetanwi Chakraborty

Editor-in-Chief

Litinfinite Journal

Kolkata

References

Gopinath, Praseeda, and Laura Brueck. The Routledge Companion to Postcolonial and Decolonial Literature. Taylor & Francis, 2024.