Murmuring Stories: Postmodern Storytelling and Ecological Perspectives in S. Hareesh’s Moustache

Abstract

In contemporary Malayalam literature, S. Hareesh, who won the JCB prize for litera- ture in 2020, has become an important voice in questioning the ethical, moral, and ratio- nal assumptions of our society with his stories that combine myth, magic, and wilderness that promote a more posthuman, magical and ecocentric ways of thinking and being. His novels and short stories dissolve and bridge the boundaries of human/animal, un- real/real nature/artificial, etc. Being an emerging writer experimenting to express his ideas through various narrative techniques like magical realism, all of his works carry a sense of depth and freshness. The research I’m undertaking in this work is to critically situate and analyze Hareesh’s most important work ‘Meesha’, through posthuman, ec- ocritical frameworks. My goal by conducting this research is to understand the ethical and philosophical consequences of his ideas and how they can be read along with the posthuman and ecocriticism movements that inevitably characterize the current larger phenomenon of postmodernism. With Hareesh’s strong ecological sensibility and his use of magic to express the interconnectedness of all beings, analyzing his work will open doors to fresh ways of thinking about human and human-nature relationships. It will, in my opinion, offer alternate possibilities to our current dispositions and enable us to move toward human actions that are in harmony with nature and the world.