Cultural dissidence in contemporary Limbu Poetry

Abstract

The dissertation posits that contemporary Limbu poets emerged from the outskirts of eastern Nepal after the political movement of 2006 write against the mainstream Nepali culture and literature in a venture to claim for the recognition of their indigenous identity. The poetic dissidence makes the critique of mainstream power bloc and thus entails the rhetoric of the political resistance of marginal communities arising as offshoots of political trajectory of 2006. They foreground their marginal identity and at the same time question lacunae and hazards of literary and cultural mainstream of the country. Poets use Mundhum rooted cultural trope as dissident force against dominant ideology. At the same time, exhibiting pulsates of their Mundhumi cultural aesthetics and experimental intervention with local myths, images, and, symbols; they also add unique flavor of Limbu indigenous identity into the domain of Nepali literature. They stick upon their eccentric cultural exuberance to communicate, discuss and articulate their underprivileged conditions. To support the claim, I have approached the poems from the theoretical perspective of Cultural Psychology as mode of resistance in which poets manifest abstract cultural divergences, identity, behaviors, orientations and emotions constituting their ethnic identity. Hence, more or less in their aesthetic response to the political and social movements of the time, the poems configure with marginal identity politics. Moreover, acknowledging ethnic identity by means of literature, poets also attempt to arouse the spirit of cultural awakening in their community members.