Yes, The Subaltern Can Speak: Draupadi/ Dopdi's Body, An Embodiment of Power in Mahasweta Devi's Short Story, "Draupadi"
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31305/rrijm.2026.v11.n07.014Keywords:
Deconstructive method, marginalization, gendered subaltern, hegemony, patriarchy, male chauvinism, female agency, inversion of powerAbstract
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak in her essay, entitled "Can the Subaltern Speak?" draws the conclusion almost pessimistically that the subaltern can nowhere be found to speak in their own voice to ventilate their views. Nowhere they are found to be acting as an entity or as an agency. Rather instead of speaking on their own about themselves, they are rather spoken about by the First World academic scholars, In the short story, "Draupadi” produced by Mahasweta Devi there is an attempt to redress the wrongs and injustices perpetrated on the powerless and voiceless subaltern in the central character named Draupai/ Dopdi Mehjen. This paper examines how she invests Dopdi's body with power, voice and narrative to subvert the mythical timid Draupadi in ‘Vastraharan episode’ of the Classical epic, the Mahabharata. Devi deviates from the classical epic that legitimizes the authority of the patriarch and inverts the sexual and textual politics deeply embedded in male aggressive and chauvinistic attitude. In fine, this paper comes as a rejoinder to the pessimistic question raised by Spivak herself once.
References
[1] The Second Sex by De Beauvoire, Simone (London: Vintage,1997)
[2] Sexual / Textual Politics: Feminist Literary Theory by Moi, Toril (London; Routledge,1985)
[3] Subaltern Studies Reader by Guha Ranajit (1986-1998, OIP,1997)
[4] Feminisms by Mukhopadhyay, Arpita Chattterjee, ( Orient Black Swan,2016)
[5] Can the Subaltern Speak?: Reflections on the History of Idea edited by Morris, Rosalind(6th April,2010)
[6] Colonialism / Postcolonialism by Loomba, Ania(Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group,1998)
[7] Literary Theoty and Criticism: An Oxford Guide edited by Patricia Waugh, International Student Edition (OUP,2006)
[8] “Draupadi” by Mahasweta Devi edited by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (Critical Inquiry, Vol.8.No.2, Writing and Sexual Difference). (Winter, 1981, University of Chicago Press)
[9] Sexual Politics by Kate Millettt published by Doubleday, New York, 1970
