“Historians who use this term take it from Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937), an Italian Marxist and Communist who was imprisoned for a long time by Mussolini’s police (from 1926) until his death at age 46. In prison, he wrote notebooks on politics and history and philosophy. He declared that the subaltern was the subjected underclass in a society on whom the dominant power exerts its hegemonic influence.” (Subaltern Studies). Subaltern is a fairly new term to the English language that has so much history behind it.
The major subaltern movement happened in India when major works of literature called Subaltern Studies Group where historians explored the history of the common person was explored more than political leaders at the time. The subaltern movement has a lot of its history in India where theorists would try to uncover this relationship between the subaltern and political leaders while also trying “to uncover the histories of groups that within the colonial and nationalist archives went largely shunted to the margins or undocumented altogether.”(Betek). India has very famous subaltern studies theorists Gayatri Spivak who has work unlike any other.
Spivak is an Indian scholar and theorist who had some of the most influential work regarding the subaltern studies. Her most famous work “Can the Subaltern Speak?” is a phenomenal look at the question in the title of her work as she takes a look at if a person can speak for themselves without being without being judged and looked down upon with those who are more powerful. Ultimately, the reading teaches us that the subaltern has a difficult time having a voice when a bigger force is in charge in a country. The bigger picture idea that Spivak is trying to convince is that it is important for these people to have voices when being colonized because they have history and culture that is so richening that colonizers are okay with throwing away. It would be impossible to run a working society without these people having a voice of somewhat because to them they are still outsiders and they have all this history to where a working civilization would never work. Spivak’s work is so inspirational even though the message is kinda anti-inspiring because when reading it, if you are in this subaltern place it makes you want to go out and change the world or your situation to make a difference in your life and others.
Works Cited
Betek , Bailey. “Subaltern Studies.” Postcolonial Studies, 13 Sept. 2020, scholarblogs.emory.edu/postcolonialstudies/2020/02/17/subaltern-studies/?utm_source=rss.
Subaltern Studies , California State University Library , web.csulb.edu/~ssayeghc/theory/subalternstudies.htm.