Volume-XII, Issue-IV, July 2026 |
Roots, Memory and Resistance in Temsula Ao's 'Laburnum for My Head' and 'The Talking Tree Alakhya Dhandia, Research Scholar, Dept. of English, Rajiv Gandhi University, Rono hills, Arunachal Pradesh, India Dr. Prachand Narayan Piraji, Assistant Professor, Dept. of English, Rajiv Gandhi University, Rono hills, Arunachal Pradesh, India |
Received: 10.07.2026 | Accepted: 18.07.2026 | Published Online: 31.07.2026 | Page No: 159-172 | ||||
DOI: 10.29032/ijhsss.vol.12.issue.04W.354 | |||||||
ABSTRACT | ||
This research article seeks to examine how Temsula Ao uses ecological elements and presents non-human agency in her two short stories: “Laburnum for My Head” and “The Talking Tree”. The objective is to incorporate a close reading of the texts by using a theoretical framework of Posthumanism, with a specific emphasis on the New Materialist approach. Temsula Ao’s writing repositions the anthropocentric concept of human exceptionalism by foregrounding the plants and all other ecological assemblages. The new materialist thinkers suggest that these non-human elements are active participants in the meaning making procedure. Here, Ao uses an experimental narrative technique that follows Naga oral story telling tradition. She not only disrupts the established and accepted hierarchy, but also makes the readers aware of the on-going debate on ecological precarity. The vividly described Laburnum tree from the short story “Laburnum for My Head” serves as a living counter monument to challenge the human memorial practices, through its long, cyclic life span that configures how a person is remembered. Similarly, the forest in other short story “The Talking Tree” serves a common space where all the flora and fauna communicate with each other, while they create a faction to resist human exploitation of their home and values. The paper tries to highlight the “vital materialism” of these “things” by adapting a reading strategy centered on nonhuman representation. The ideas of Jane Bennett (on “Vibrant matter”) and Rosi Braidotti (on “Posthuman subjectivity) are integrated here to conceptualize the agency of the plants. The study is an attempt to situate the North-East Indian writing with global discussion on ecological vulnerability by putting forward the Naga indigenous knowledge system, as represented in Ao. | ||
Keywords: Memory, Nagaland, New Materialism, Plants, Temsula Ao. |