Challenging Social Norms: Exploring Subaltern Perspectives in Vijay Tendulkar's Sakharam Binder
Keywords:
subaltern consciousness, social norms, socio-cultural, consciousness, powerAbstract
This research paper, "Challenging Social Norms: Exploring Subaltern Perspectives in Vijay Tendulkar's Sakharam Binder, " examines the representation of subaltern consciousness in Tendulkar's acclaimed play. This study examines the significance of subaltern perspectives in challenging and deconstructing dominant social norms prevalent in contemporary Indian society. The research investigates how Tendulkar's Sakharam Binder provides a voice to marginalised individuals and communities on the periphery of societal structures. It emphasises the complex interplay between power, agency, and subaltern consciousness through a close textual analysis of the play, including its characterisation, dialogues, and narrative developments. It explores the play's provocative themes of gender, caste, and class and their implications for subaltern agency and resistance. Incorporating literary analysis, cultural studies, and social commentary, this study employs a multidimensional approach to decipher the subaltern consciousness embedded in Sakharam Binder. But as Gramsci and Spivak argue, there is the politics behind speaking or working for the subalterns, which suggests the central and severe issue about the liberation of the subalternity has existed for centuries. In addition, it investigates the play's reception and influence within the Indian socio-cultural context, casting light on its contribution to challenging dominant norms and spurring dialogue about subaltern experiences. This study contributes to extant scholarship on the works of Vijay Tendulkar and the study of subaltern consciousness in Indian literature.
Downloads
References
Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. "Subaltern Studies: Deconstructing Historiography." Subaltern Studies IV. Ed. Ed. Ranjit Guha. Delhi: OUP, 1986. 330-63.
- - . “Subaltern Studies: Deconstructing Historiography.” Subaltern Studies IV. Ed. Ed. Ranjit Guha. Delhi: OUP, 1986. 345
- - . “Subaltern Studies: Deconstructing Historiography.” Subaltern Studies IV. Ed. Ed. Ranjit Guha. Delhi: OUP, 1986.342
Bhadra, Gautam. “The Mentality of Subalternity: Kantanama or Rajdharma.” Selected Subaltern Studies. Ed. Ranjit Guha. Delhi: OUP, 1988. 63-69.
Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. “Can Subaltern Speak?” Colonial Discourse and Post-colonial Theory: A Reader. Ed. Patrick Williams et al. New York: Colombia UP, 1994. 66-111.
- - . A Literary Representation of the Subaltern: Mahasweta Devi’s Stanadayini. Ed. Ranjit Guha. Subaltern Studies V. Delhi: OUP, 1987. 91-134.
- - . The Writers and its Contexts and His Themes. Delhi: Cambridge House, 2005.
Hershatter, Gail. "The Subaltern Talks Back: Reflections on Subaltern Theory and Chinese History" Positions 1.1 (1993): 103-30.
Guha, Ranjit, ed. Subaltern Studies I. Delhi: OUP, 1982.
- - . “Dominance without Hegemony and Its Historiography.” Subaltern Studies VI. Delhi: OUP, 1988. 209-310.
Gramsci, Antonio. “Some Aspects of the Southern Question.” Selections from Political Writings: 1921-1926. Trans. Quentin Hoare. New York: New York University Press, 1978.
