This paper is published in Volume-7, Issue-3, 2021
Area
English Literature
Author
S. Karthicka
Org/Univ
Vellalar College for Women, Erode, Tamil Nadu, India
Pub. Date
02 June, 2021
Paper ID
V7I3-1642
Publisher
Keywords
Postcolonialism, Eurocentrism, colonizer, colonized land, marginalization, subaltern, hegemonic patriarchal, ‘othering’ of the margins, feminist discourse.

Citationsacebook

IEEE
S. Karthicka. Plight of the Subaltern woman in Mahasweta Devi’s “Draupadi”, International Journal of Advance Research, Ideas and Innovations in Technology, www.IJARIIT.com.

APA
S. Karthicka (2021). Plight of the Subaltern woman in Mahasweta Devi’s “Draupadi”. International Journal of Advance Research, Ideas and Innovations in Technology, 7(3) www.IJARIIT.com.

MLA
S. Karthicka. "Plight of the Subaltern woman in Mahasweta Devi’s “Draupadi”." International Journal of Advance Research, Ideas and Innovations in Technology 7.3 (2021). www.IJARIIT.com.

Abstract

ABSTRACT Europeans identify them with ‘Eurocentrism’ and observe themselves as dominant and superior, and their colonized land as inferior to them. The colonizers are concerned about the possibility of being contaminated by the interaction with the colonized people and have always been frightened of this interaction, thereby leaving behind their supremacy and power over the colonized, consequently, the colonizers consider the interaction as a menace and disguised their fear. This study examines Mahasweta Devi’s “Draupadi” which reflects the Subaltern concept which is one of the significant concepts of Postcolonialism. It was popularized by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s essay titled, “Can the Subaltern Speak?” (1985). The status of women in the society, predominantly marginalized is engrossed with the sense of negligence. These marginalized women are suffering in terms of their gender, class and caste discrimination. These women are not provided any authority with regard to their own self and existing. The marginalized women live on the edge of the domination and anguish. This paper persistently attempts to re-examine the marginalization of the tribal woman with reference to Mahasweta Devi’s “Draupadi”, which is a metanarrative, capturing the life and times of its protagonist Dopdi Majhen, a Santhal tribal, at the intersection of modern developmental state and subsistent subaltern survival. It raises the issues of class, caste and colonialism, and their collusion in the formation of hegemonic patriarchal nation state and how this mainstream formation maintains itself through violent ‘othering’ of the margins. Mahasweta Devi is one of the contemporary woman writers who deal with the forms of oppression in her works. She is considered as one of the boldest of Bengali female writers whose works are associated with the rural tribal community of West Bengal, women and dalits. Feministic aspect is observed in her works through the sympathetic portrayal of women and their consequent revolt. She exemplifies the sufferings of women, miseries and their power of enduring and resistance. She also deals with the women issues like loneliness, separation, women’s fight for survival, exploitative situations like rape, marital violence, death and its loss and female slavery. Critics like Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak view Mahasweta Devi’s works as rich sites of feminist discourse.