About The Event

The Department of English is organising a Lecture Series on “Without the ‘Anxiety of Influence’: A Bird’s-Eye View of Writing from Nagaland” on 16 October 2026, with Dr. Maongkala Longchar, Associate Professor, Dimapur Government College, as the resource person.

All interested faculty members and students are cordially invited to attend the lecture and engage in this academic initiative.

Attendance is mandatory for all UG English Honours students of the 1st, 3rd, and 5th Semesters.

We look forward to your participation and support in making this academic engagement meaningful.

Concept Note:
Harold Bloom’s theory of Anxiety of Influence argues that strong poets negotiate their relationships with influential predecessors through acts of misreading, resistance, revision, and literary self-assertion. This framework will be applied to Naga literature, as it raises the question of influence, which has primary been folk narratives. By situating Naga literature within Bloom’s theoretical framework, the session seeks to encourage a critical understanding of the relationship between literary inheritance and originality, while considering how writers negotiate the tension between cultural tradition and individual creative expression. 

About The Speaker:
Dr. Maongkala Longchar is an Associate Professor in the Department of English at Dimapur Government College, under the Department of Higher Education, Government of Nagaland. An accomplished academic, educator, reviewer, and editor, Dr Longchar brings over seventeen years of teaching experience in higher education. Her academic contributions extend to serving on the boards of various schools and universities, reflecting her engagement with academic governance and institutional development. She has delivered keynote addresses and presented research papers at numerous national and international seminars and conferences. Her scholarly work has also been published in several peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes, contributing to ongoing academic discourse and research in her field.