User:Sarahtabet/Representations of the Subaltern in Postcolonial Literature

Postcolonial lens and the Subaltern

Post colonialism is a literary approach that seeks to analyze literature that was produced by a formally colonized population (people that were subdued to a domination of another). This lens emphasizes how colonized cultures evolved, identifies the colonizer's beliefs and highlights traces of resistance on the behalf of the colonized. Accordingly, postcolonial criticism creates the ability to make connections between the psychological, the social and the political to understand the relationship between the colonizer and the colonized from their first contact. This theory also establishes similarities with other theories that describe human oppression such as Marxism and feminism.

The term subaltern refers to a person who is excluded from the hegemonic power structure. In postcolonial literature, a subaltern represents any person who is not part of the dominant narrative. In other words, if interpretation is involved, it should be taken into consideration who is interpreting the events and how the rest is being represented.  In her essay, “Can the Subaltern Speak?”, Gayatri Spivak argues that those who are in a subaltern position, do not get the opportunity to voice themselves. They are silenced and we are not able to follow the events from their point of view. We receive their story from the colonizer's perspective, which indicates their controlling power in what stories are published, who is given the authority to speak, what language is used, and under what circumstances does one perform the narration. Since the subaltern is often muted, how could they get a "good" representation? The literary work could aim to avoid the white savior complex and could show that the subaltern has the power to fend for itself.

The characters in the postcolonial texts mentioned below, could be labelled as subaltern, as they have been subjected to colonial rule and ideology, which convinces them that they are inferior compared to the colonizer and that they should remain speechless. Thus, analyzing the representations of the characters is important, in order to identify traces of subalternity in contrast to traces of power.

The Guest

Understanding the representations of the subaltern when looking at works from a postcolonial lens, is always problematic because it should be questioned who is doing the story-telling. "The Guest" is a text written by Albert Camus, from a third person point of view. Camus, is French, he was writing in exile, he was very critical about the French regime; yet, he could not let go off the stereotypes. The story depicts Daru, a French school master and an Arab prisoner. Daru is given the task of taking the Arab to the police headquarters. Daru points towards the direction of imprisonment and also towards the direction of freedom and he is surprised when he sees that the Arab chose imprisonment.

In the text, there are not many adjectives that describe Daru, readers don't know what Daru looks like but know what the Arab looks like. This suggests that the narrator feels that they should filter the Arab for the audience. Nevertheless, Daru's thoughts and concerns are made known, as well as what he does for a living. The text has a limited narrator. At no point does the narrator relate what is going on in the Arab's head. Then, there is a random Arab who is not even given a name. This shows that the Arab is being represented as a less important creature, due to the fact that one character is described and the other is not. Moreover, when comparing the verb choices for the Arab with those of Daru, it could be interpreted that the Arab seems to be passive and that he does not speak; whereas Daru, seems to be dynamic. For instance, the verb “didn’t like”, which reveals that Daru had the chance to give an opinion, while the Arab just “nodded”, which reveals that he had no influence over what was happening. Additionally, the one moment when the Arab wanted to speak, he was shut down and the one moment when he was given a choice to either follow the road to prison or just go somewhere else, he chose prison. Why did the Arab choose the road to prison? It does not make sense that someone willingly chooses prison. Daru was amazed by the Arab's choice and what he went through afterwards is very common, he gave the Arab an opportunity but the Arab did not grab it. He helped the Arab, but why did the Arab not help himself? When Daru returned to his school, he found threats by fellow Arabs and the idea that he felt alone was new to him. Remember the title of the story, "The Guest"; the story takes place in Algeria. Then, who is the guest and who is the host in the Arab's land? From this text, it has been found that Spivak has a point when she argued that the subaltern's thoughts and opinion are disregarded and neglected, the Arab has been completely silenced.

Caged Bird

Caged bird

"Caged Bird" written by Maya Angelou portrays the differences that exist between a free and a caged bird. The poet claims that the caged bird will always find a means of sharing their story and will always manage to sing, even though they are tied up in cage. The caged bird represents the subaltern, to what extent will its voice be heard? It is stated in the poem, "from the distant hill", which could possibly mean, looking at the other end of the communication channel.

The free bird is privileged, as it is able to imagine and think; while the caged bird only thinks of what his end will look like. In addition, the caged bird is allowed to feel rage, it also gets applauded for expressing itself, but that is only it. It does not change the status quo. Going back to the representation of the subaltern, the caged bird is able to voice itself but its voice does not lead to a progress in its state.

The stanzas that are describing the free bird are dynamic; whereas those that are describing the caged bird are repetitive. To explain, the caged bird goes through the same experiences, the same context and the same cycle of events, throughout the whole poem. The poem starts with the free bird and reexamining the representation of the subaltern, it could indicate that the free bird has gained dominance. However, starting the poem with the caged bird, would show that it is the norm and that it is the free bird that is the exotic. If the free bird is observed from a critical sense, it could be argued that his life is not necessarily a free or good life. The free bird has the ability to claim the sky, but that could be another idea of being caged (the free bird reaches the sky and then it is over).

Stranger in the Village

"Stranger in the Village", written by James Baldwin takes place in the country of Switzerland, which supposedly represents equality and justice. It is the narrator who is doing the story-telling and it seems that the ambiance is one of isolation, despite the many conversations with the natives; the narrator feels that they are alienated from the rest of the natives. The villagers are curious about the narrator's physical appearance and regard him as uncommon or as an exotic. The narrator sees them like children who have not yet learned politeness.

In this text, the subaltern can speak but in way that indicates that they conform to the message. To clarify, if they manage to get a voice when they are subjected to racism and discrimination, they would be told by the villagers that they are overthinking it. The subaltern's feelings are not validated. Even if they did speak (the way he describes the village is very offensive), the natives' reaction would not be the sort of conversation the subaltern was hoping for. Reconsidering the concept of the subaltern's representation in a postcolonial work, the villagers in this text have theorized that the subaltern belongs to the devil and they can conclude even more why he does not belong to them. The subaltern to them is different and that is why they think they have the authority to invade his personal space.

The narrator mentions that he has been trained in Shakespeare's literature (he uses the natives' language which could possibly indicate that he is not silenced) but then he explains that no matter how good he is at using the language he will not match the villagers' level. Probably, the narrator could be promoting the notion of "The Empire Writes Back", and arguing that the black people also have a culture and that they can write novels too (subaltern is not completely silent). Nonetheless, it is the white people who started writing novels and the idea that the black people are fighting the white with the same means and platform raises questions.

The narrator claims that the idea of looking at binaries of black and white is overly simplified and that the white people have a desire to return to "innocence" where black people are not included and that is why the white still oppress and exclude the black instead of accepting them and acknowledging that they are all humans. This desire is troublesome, as it seeks to overlook the crimes committed by the white people based on external differences, instead of holding the white people responsible. The black people would establish an identity by the white people's standards. Before colonization, there was a sense of self but during colonization and perhaps during post colonization, the black people would establish an identity that opposes the white people's. The lack of knowledge is what differentiates innocence and experience. The white people cannot shut their eyes because they have a lot of experience. To the narrator, this "innocence" is only fantasy and that is why he ends with a hopeful note that progress is unavoidable.