Speaking For Subaltern

Gayatri C. Spivak is regarded as one of the most influential figure in theWestern academic field, who is widely known as a famous postcolonial critic andtheorist. Her lifelong academic pursuit can be summarized as to reveal and representthe voice and discourse of the marginalized group with her application of Derrida’sdeconstructionism and political interpretation of Marx’s series of political famousworks. The historical voice and existence of the Subaltern group has been covered oreven effaced by the Western dominance discourse and colonialism historiography.With central reference to Spivak’s famous essayCan Subaltern Speak?(1988), theauthor ties to explore the underlying elements which made the voice andconsciousness of the Subaltern group effaced within the colonialism and elitismhistoriography. Then, the author argues that the appropriate identity of the intellectualought to be the “righteous representative” but not the ones huddling behind thedominance discourse.This thesis is composed of five parts. The introduction part is the first partthat mainly contains the contents of brief introduction of Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak,literature review, and the importance of this thesis. The second part is chapter one,this section mainly aims at discussing the Subaltern group. Through comparing otherintellectuals’ points to Spivak’s, the author points out the limitation and further statesSpivak’s argument and her analysis concentration on Subaltern group. The third partis chapter two which mainly focus on talking about the consciousness and subject ofSubaltern group. The fourth part of this thesis is chapter three. In this sector, theauthor will mainly point out the other factor—intellectual’s representation onSubaltern group. The final part is the conclusion which will summarize the pointsthat this thesis wants to reveal and once more emphasize the profound and inspiringinfluences Spivak has exerted on recovering the historically lost image of Subaltern.