https://doi.org/10.67147/literariness.v1i3.056
Affective Landscapes and Indigenous Ecologies: Rereading The Folded Earth through Tinai
DR. SONIA JAMES
Associate Professor
Department of English
St. Peter’s College, Kolenchery, Kerala
Abstract: This article attempts to explore an individual’s search for the meaning of existence as unravelled in the Indian English writer Anuradha Roy’s novel The Folded Earth. The focus is predominantly on how subjectivity is moulded by memory, affect, and ecological space. The Western concept of affect theory and the Tamil ecological and aesthetic concept of tinai form the theoretical framework of the study. The paper also employs Judith Herman’s theory of trauma and recovery to examine how Maya, the protagonist, attempts to tide over the trauma caused by the loss of her husband Michael in a mountain accident. Maya’s retreat to Ranikhet, a Himalayan hill town, her emotional journey, and eventual healing are investigated through the lens of the classical Tamil ecocritical theory of tinai, which connects human emotions to landscapes.
Keywords: Affect, Trauma, Tinai, Memory, Subjectivity, Landscape, Space, Ecocriticism
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