LaDissertation.com - Dissertations, fiches de lectures, exemples du BAC
Recherche

Les études subalternes de Gayatri Spivak (document en anglais)

Dissertation : Les études subalternes de Gayatri Spivak (document en anglais). Recherche parmi 297 000+ dissertations

Par   •  27 Mars 2013  •  3 171 Mots (13 Pages)  •  1 055 Vues

Page 1 sur 13

SUBALTERN STUDIES OF GAYATRI SPIVAK

Introduction :

The term Subaltern was taken from an essay by Antonio Gramsci (1881-1937), an Italian writer who viewed political and cultural issues from a Marxist perspective. The term refers to any person or group of inferior rank and station, and thus it can be applied in discussions of race, class, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and religion.

Subaltern Studies Group or Subaltern Studies Collective (SSC or SSG), refers particularly to a group of South Asian scholars who claimed to work on post-colonial society, giving more attention to the base of the society that do not make part of the ruling elite who regulate the researching and the writing of history in South Asia or other countries. It immerged in order to rewrite the version of Indian history during the 1980’s and was influenced by Eric Stokes ‘s desire to study back the narrative of History of India and South Asia but other countries in the world took back this concept. Writers like Gayatri Spivak and Edward Said have challenged the ethnocentrism of most western accounts of "History”. The Subaltern Studies Group aimed at rethinking and rewriting the history of India. Spivak explains in her opening paragraphs that traditional histories are often influenced by a Marxist representation. Thus, they tend to deal with India in a kind of semi-feudal state, then go on to tell how it was colonized by the British, how it was politicized, and how it eventually earned its independence. The heroes of these narratives are the Indian elites: the elites, usually presented as the first Indians to gain any sort of political consciousness, and are said to provide the inspiration and values in resistance and rebellion against the British. ." The creation of the SSG was due to a context where historiography in India was divided between two visions: the first was the imperialist vision of the colonizers and the second was the vision of the new nationalist elite with some Marxist point of view. But subaltern searchers intended to give a chance to the inferior classes to express their opinion, not necessarily in the political narrative of history but also in the social and cultural account of India. Some SS members left the group especially reproaching the group for a post-modernism turn taken by the movement.

1) Subaltern studies

a) Indian historiographic legitimacy

b) Submission of subaltern

2) The stake of subalternity and its consequences

a) Rewriting history

b) Identity of the subaltern

3) Gayatri Spivak opinion on Subalten

a) Brief presentation

b) Spivak stance on Subalternity

c) Toward a deconstruction of history

1. About Subaltern Studies :

a) Interest in Indian Historiography

India achieved its independence in 1947and paved the way to the decolonization process. Then some studies about the writings of Indian History and Society began in 1982 as a series of interventions in some debates. The state of Subaltern is when the voice of a human agent of history is ignored, falsified or represented by the national bourgeoisie. Despite the reduced number of the native upper-class they rule the massive number of the working class or the part of population who do not have the cultural power to express themselves (such as the working class, Muslims or women). One of the leaders and founder of the SSG was Ranajit Guha with his “manifesto in Subaltern Studies I”, but also with his classic monograph The Elementary Aspects of Peasant Insurgency in 1983. Over the time, Ranajit Guha handed over the writings of Subaltern Studies to other humanities and social sciences scholars. He directed the gradual publication of the first 4 series of 11 studies.

Subaltern was the name given to those classes who had been forgotten in the struggle for the Indian Independence, for example Scholars questioned some part of the Indian Rebellion, and also questions the awareness of the British imperialism from the Indian upper-class. On the subaltern study there is a focusing on what we can call the “subaltern version”, version of those who do not come from the upper-class but those who really act for socio-economic and politic changes, with a peculiar interest in their movements and insurgencies that are the directly observed and effective causes of historical changes. Their main idea was that some groups had been forgotten in the struggle for a political or an ethic cause like in Indian Independence. The movement was practiced by the Indians but inside the Indian community there had been divergences between the Marxist interest and other social groups in India who was the massive population and had specific interests.

b) Subaltern: a question of speech submission

According thinkers of the Subaltern, Every body of a society represents a pencil that constitutes the history of a people, this was considered as ignored by the nationalist Indian bourgeoisie who in a way implement their policy, using the claiming of independence of India, they finally forgot the “subaltern”, those who did not have means of communication but actively made part of the protestation, and had submitted the consequences of socio-political changes. Progressively Indian Bourgeoisie took over the action and claims of the “people from below” in order to establish and win their own interest. And this was labeled as a struggle for modernity and progress and inspired by the European world.

The S movement massively includes Marxist or radical leftist thinkers who believe in the importance of post-colonialism. They opposed themselves with the concept of modernity of the western empire, modernity linked with what will become the globalization system and the European model that have emerged between the Enlightenment movement and the Renaissance and would result to a globalization and social division, muffling the “subaltern” claims. According to the SG, the western modernity passed over and disregarded the real expectations of minorities who struggled, protest and act for specific goals.

Dipesh Chakrabarty goes further with his concept of provincilizing Europe which we talked about during the lecture: Europe is not on the center of the history or of the philosophy. Chakrabarty précised that SG intentions are not for the criticism or the questioning of the Enlightenment legacy but for a less

...

Télécharger au format  txt (20 Kb)   pdf (189.6 Kb)   docx (16.2 Kb)  
Voir 12 pages de plus »
Uniquement disponible sur LaDissertation.com