Analysing Alice Walker's The Color Purple from the Subaltern study perspective.

1. A Subaltern study of
Alice Walker’s
The Color Purple

2. INTRODUCTION
 Subaltern studies; an infant of post-colonial criticism
 Antonio Gramsci: Notes on Italian History from Prison Notebooks
 Ranajit Guha: 20th century scholars working on the issue of Indian peasantry
historiography resume his efforts of imprisoned Antonio Gramsci. These scholars
led by Ranajit Guha came to be known as the Subaltern Studies Group.
 Gayatri Spivak Chakravorty: Can the Subaltern Speak?

3. Antonio Gramsci’s notion of Subaltern
 “The notion of the subaltern was first referred to by the Italian Marxist political
activist Antonio Gramsci in his article “Notes on Italian History” which appeared
later on as part of his most widely known book Prison Notebooks written between
1929 and 1935 … The subaltern classes refer fundamentally in Gramsci‟s words to
any “low rank” person or group of people in a particular society suffering under
hegemonic domination of a ruling elite class that denies them the basic rights of
participation in the making of local history and culture as active individuals of the
same nation.” (Louai, Pg.5)
 Just like the Dalits of India, the Blacks in America suffered from hegemonic
domination, even their basic rights were denied. You wonder why Alice Walker
was an active participant in the civil rights movement?

4.  “Ranajit Guha defined the Subaltern Studies as, “a name for the general attribute
of subordination in South Asian society whether this is expressed in terms of class,
caste, age, gender and office or in any other way.” The subaltern for him is that
clearly definite entity, which constitutes “the demographic difference between the
total Indian population and all those whom we have described as the „elite‟”.
(Guha, 1982, Quoted in Louai, p. 6)
 Kamla and Ramchand in The Sari Shop, Rani in Nagamandala, Bikhini, Sanichari
and her family in Rudali , Ram Persad in The White Tiger.
 Relegation of the Blacks by the Whites;
 Ms. Millie asked Sofia to work as her maid.
 Nettie and Celie’s real father lynched for his growing financial status.

5. Gayatri Spivak’s notion of Subaltern
 Spivak reconsidered the concept of Subaltern as she “shifts to reconsider the
issues of the subaltern groups by dealing with the problems of gender and
particularly Indian women during colonial times. She reflected on the status of
Indian women relying on her analysis of a case of Sati women practices under the
British colonial rule.” (Louai, p. 7)
 Sati women as a subaltern group and the western discourse among other
arguments. “the subaltern cannot speak”. (Spivak, )
 Black Feminism in America, Can the Black women speak?
 Celie, the most oppressed woman in the text is emancipated at the end.
“[to Albert] Till you do right by me, everything you even think about gonna' fail”.

6. Subalternity and The Color Purple
 “Ain’t no way to read the bible and not think God white, she say. Then she sigh.
When I found out I thought God was white, and a man, I lost interest. You mad
cause he don’t seem to listen to your prayers. Humph! Do the mayor listen to
anything colored say?” (73.28;35-44)
 “Sofia say, Hell no [to the Mayor’s wife]
Mayor look at Sofia, push his wife out the way. Stick out his chest. Girl, what you
say to Miss Millie?
Sofia say, I say, Hell no.
He slap her. “(37.13-19)

7. Cont.
 Harpo beats Sofia, so as not to be taken for “less than a man”.
 Mr. ___ violently mistreats his family just like his own tyrannical father does.
 Celie advises Harpo to beat Sofia because that’s her concept of womanhood.
 Subjugation of women by the Black patriarchs… “All my
life I had to fight. I had to fight my daddy. I had to fight my uncles. I had to fight
my brothers. A girl child ain't safe in a family of men, but I ain't never thought I'd
have to fight in my own house!” (Sofia)
 Inferioration of women…
“He beat me today cause he say I winked at a boy in church. I may have got
somethin in my eye but I didn’t wink. I don’t even look at mens.” (5.1)

8. Works Cited
 El Habib Louai. “Retracing the concept of the subaltern from Gramsci to Spivak:
Historical developments and new applications.” African Journal of History and
Culture (AJHC) Vol. 4(1), pp. 4-8, January 2012. Web. 20 Oct. 2016
 SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on The Color Purple.” SparkNotes.com.
SparkNotes LLC. 2003. Web. 12 Oct. 2016.
 Shmoop Editorial Team. "The Color Purple Race Quotes." Shmoop. Shmoop
University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 18 Oct. 2016.
 Spivak C. Gayatri. “Can the Subaltern Speak?”