Magic Realism Mirror The Unconscious Self Estimation In The Select Novels Of Easterine Kire

Abstract

Magic realism, is a combination of two poignant words, ‘magic’ and ‘realism’. This term was familiarized by a German art critic, Franz Roh, in the 1925. However, it was only in the 1950’s that this term led to a movement in magic realism beginning in the Latin America. The magic realism as a movement and as a theory gradually broadened and encompassed several characteristics or elements. It is no longer restricted to the Latin American writers. In India, it was Salman Rushdie, who popularized this type of writing through his work, ‘Midnights Children’. In the contemporary Indian literature, this genre has been seen in many emerging writers of the North East. One such author, who uses magic realism, is the writer from Nagaland, Easterine Kire. This paper is an attempt to illustrate the elements of magic realism through the select works of Easterine Kire and also to emphasize on the relation that it has with the unconscious self, with the use of the psychoanalytic theories of Freud. The methodology used to achieve the above implication is by the theoretical application of the concepts of magic realism and psychoanalytic theory of criticism to the novels of Easterine Kire such as ‘When the River Sleeps’, ‘Son of the Thundercloud’, ‘Don’t Run, my Love’, and ‘The Terrible Matriarchy’.