Performing Memory through Storytelling in Easterine Kire’s Spirit Nights

Abstract

Nagaland, one of the eight states which together constitute the Northeast, has always been a region of conflict and unrest in the post-independent India. Naga state continues to be a state of violence and the people have gone through the trauma associated with it. Memory plays an important role in helping the individual to remember and recreate the past experiences which are traumatic. Their agony and grief is best captured through storytelling and Easterine Kire, one of the most prolific writers of northeast, has used memory as a tool to define and shape Naga culture and their life. In a place like Nagaland, to unearth their history, which has not been documented, the most influential methodology of narration is performing memory. The present paper studies how Easterine Kire’s  Spirit Nights performs and creates memories through storytelling in an attempt to recreate and imagine the popular unconscious.