The locus of enunciation of the subaltern subject: speech and silecing

Abstract

This paper investigates the speech / silence of the subjects, aiming to establish a discussion around the complex debate about the locus of enunciation of subaltern subject in contemporary social life, especially in the scientific field. The contributions of theoretical Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (2010) in the text “Can the subaltern speak?” were taken as the focus of this paper in which the author states that subordinates are those who do not participate, or participate in a very limited way, by being dumb subjects for the cultural imperialism and the epistemological violence. There is not consensus on the propositive way or the resignation over the Spivak’s work (2010). Numerous criticisms are made to her intellectual thought. On the one hand some people will name the propositions of Gayatri as a theoretical who not propose any output from the inferiority condition of the subalterns, on the other people will point that she takes a firm and courageous stance by stating that the responsibility for fighting against the subordination is a role of intellectuals. The central point of this essay is the searching for frameworks, textual, social and policies structures that can encourage the emergence of voices that were silenced by imperialist political forces. Therefore it took as theoretical support the Subaltern South-Asian Studies and Postcolonial asking about these new subjects of scientific literature and its enunciation. This theoretical field is presented as an important contribution to the scientific field therefore it brings the “other” to the scene, the not speaker, the muted, which has always been the place of subject in science and, rarely, the subject of science.