"Closing" the Wounds: A Close Reading of Easterine Kire's Bitter Wormwood
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This article reads Easterine Kire’s popular novel about Naga insurgency movement, Bitter Wormwood (2011), framed by its metaphorical title. Naga insurgency is the oldest in the Northeast region of India and has shaped the subjectivities of generations of Naga men and women. In this article, Kire’s choice of a metaphor from traditional Naga herbology is used as an interpretive frame to tease out the meaning and objective of the novel. From this exercise, a picture of disillusionment with Naga insurgency and the need to find closure to the collective memory of being subjected to military excesses by the Indian armed forces emerges. Kire’s novel represents an attempt to provide Nagas with an alternative view and attitude towards the not-so-pleasant memory of their past while also exploring new avenues of relationships underpinned by a desire for a mutually respectful co-existence.
Author: Shelmi Sankhil
Language: English
Subfield: Literature and Literary Theory
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W6930943992
FWCI:
Cites:
Cited by:
Related to: