Folk Of The North East India: Oral Narratives As A Pre-Position Mechanism In ‘Negativisation’ And ‘Typicalisation’ Of Characters In The Contemporary Darlong Civil Society

Abstract

Construction of characters in a literary piece has become a debatable topic in the 21^st century especially that of a female, which the feminist world has been continuously stirring around aiming to break through the door of masculinity complex[1]. In fact, characters in folk literatures and fairy tales had served the world with the same purpose acknowledging its existence in a form of oral materials. The Darlong oral narratives is no exception to it where certain characters are considered conventional where as other are dumped as negative images. The article attempts to highlight the working mechanism of Darlong oral narratives in deification and villainization of characters in the present Darlong society rooted through their tales and other narratives where the likes of ‘Râlruanga’, ‘King of Sonabawr’, ‘Sulhlutea’, ‘Rimȇnhawii’ and others are celebrated as heroes and heroine. In the meantime, there are also characters whose names merely ornamented the tribe’s narratives and never really canonise for they perhaps lacked the virtues and vices that the above-mentioned characters possessed. It is interesting to note how these characters have influenced the present society in objectifying their respective characters.