Exploring Fearism in Literature: A Critical Study on Select Women Writers of the North East India

Abstract

The present paper aims to study some of the prose fictions of the select Northeast women writers from a very new perspective in literary theory that is ‘The Philosophy of Fearism’. Fearism , propounded by Desh Subba ,is regarded as the first east-west dialogue, an emerging philosophy that deals basically with the issues of fear and its impact in human life. Mamang Dai from Arunachal Pradesh, Temsula Ao from Nagaland and Arupa Patangia Kalita from Assam have been so vocal female voices from this region and this paper will study some select works by them from a fearist perspective. Their works highlight the concern about ecology, social issues and the traumatic conflicts in human life; nonetheless, we can delineate these philosophical visions of Fearism in the portrayal of characters. Desh Subba, the founder of Fearism asserts that human beings go through fearmorphosis, they are being watched by panopticans and sometimes man himself scapegoat not only the innocent people, even the nature with arms and gun powder. This paper will study ‘Stupid Cupid’ by Mamang Dai, ‘The Curfew Man’ by Temsula Ao and Arupa Patangia kalita’s ‘The Girl with a long Hair’ and will try to interpret with this perspective because the characters dwelling in different situations are the victim of a fear Sisyphus, who are always under the multiple eyes of fear and this fear destabilizes their life being.