Mahasweta Devi Giving Voice to the Voiceless with Special Reference to Subaltern Studies

Abstract

Post-colonial studies examine how personal and collective identities are impacted by the cultural displacements caused by imperial conquests and dominance. It poses a threat to the hegemonic position of the governing forces, as well as the value system that upholds imperialism on every different level. To be more specific, the concerns it addresses include racial and ethnic diversity, language, gender, identity, social status, and, most importantly, power.

The Palestinian-American critic Edward Said's book "Orientalism," published in 1978, represents the beginning of the field of postcolonial studies. Bhabha is another prominent postcolonial theorist who examines the occurrences of cultural exchanges between conquerors and colonized people. It was Gayatri Chakravorty. Spivak is the third most prominent postcolonial critic. He is attempting to bring to light the colonized people who have been forgotten or ignored throughout history (written by the mainstream) because they were either hushed or denied the opportunity to make their voices heard. She draws attention to the predicament of the colonized as a whole, who are oppressed, unheard, exploited, and silenced; nevertheless, she observes that women are doubly unheard and invisible in patriarchal cultures. Spivak was the first postcolonial thinker unafraid to speak up and had a feminist objective.