Representing the Subaltern and Subaltern Experiences Reading And Interpreting Selected Indian Fictional Works

Abstract

Abstract newline newline newlineThe thesis investigates and describes the concept of subaltern. To investigate, discover and establish a subaltern seems at first to be a positivistic project a project which leads to firm ground, to something that can be disclosed. Thus the present research project aims to the study of subaltern s view, will and presence. Attention to subaltern awareness is also a part of this research project. It aims to layout the broad contours of subaltern consciousness by making an attempt to cover many aspects of subalternity. The present research project also aims to reflect on the idea of giving a representation of the subaltern and subaltern experience: the entire people who have (or have had) their voices silenced. A study on the representations of the subaltern and subaltern experience is arguably valuable for research, for not much work has been done on this topic; it gives a wider scope to explore new grounds. newlineThe lack and privation, isolation and alienation, suppression and subjection, the submission and silence characterize the lives of subaltern, even when they battle against in order to rise up, they feel restrained and vanquished by their subject positions. They have no spokesman or spokeswoman in the society they live in, as a result, they get marginal place or no place at all in the history and culture of which they are the important part (Singh 98).This may include various subaltern groups, whether women, peasant, outcastes, the working class, tribals, the downtrodden or the other marginalized subjectivities. newlineLiterally meaning subordinate , subaltern is primarily a British military term but it was first deployed in a non-military sense by Antonio Gramsci in his article Notes on Italian History which later got published in his most celebrated book the Prison Notebooks. Gramsci s pursuit of the subaltern is a part of his overarching interrogation into Italian history, politics and culture. His inquiry for studying the history of the subaltern placed greater emphasis on the newline newlineculture and ideol