1. Can the Subaltern Speak?
An Essay by Gayatri Spivak

2. Subaltern
Subaltern is that identity that has no possibility at social mobility
No possibility to speak
No possibility to be heard
Intransability of the Subaltern’s structural position

3. Photograph by Fazal Sheikh
Photograph by Fazal Sheikh. Ajoh Achot and Achol Manyen, Sudanese refugee camp. Lokichoggio, Kenya, 1992.

4. Representation Who is represented as the Subject?
Who is representable as the Subject?
Who is chosen to represent the Subaltern?

5. How is Speaking Subject being Produced?
white man
Savior -
brown man
Injurer -
brown woman
Injured -
Brown woman oppressed as structural necessity
Saving brown woman is also a structural necessity

6. Woman as a Subject
Woman remains an unthinkable figure that needs saving, protection, an assigned identity, a set of limits, rules.
Where do the rules/norms/ideas of identity come from?
How are the rules, norms, identities POLICED?

7. Subaltern Identity Accepts wretchedness as normality
Millennial cognitive damage done to subaltern
Valid institutional background can help subaltern speak

8. Agency Agency is the CAPABILITY or POWER to affect a desired change.
Agency is NOT the same as Rights, Freedoms, Privileges, Advantages, Abilities.
Agency is more specific to time, place, socio- economic context.
Agency is increasingly perceived as a key goal of development.

9. New Subaltern Identity
Subaltern becoming permeable because of desire to “do good” or “do something”
Allow subaltern to speak and be heard
A general will to create exploitation into the subaltern, too, is present