The paper is an effort to add to the discussion on modernity from the standpoint of defying subaltern subjects, engendering metamorphic effects of universal bearing. Focusing upon one’s life for narrative elaboration has often been perceived as a characteristic indicator of modernity. This is empirically put across by the narrative of Saleena Prakkanam. The gathering outcry of struggle as manifested through her life narrative Chengara Samaravum Ente Jeevithavum (Chengara Land Struggle and My Life) has fashioned the diversified contours of the notion of resistance as liberation in a provincial milieu, but with a wider implication. The narrative discourse is a daring mission to set up and stimulate a culture of resistance. It turns out as a counter-hegemonic course of action, a stubborn resistance and an exceptional struggle in opposition to societal segregation. Saleena Prakkanam’s discourse, thus takes shape as a challenge against community exclusion enforced upon the marginal subjects, redefining subalternity in context. In the process, it offers a critique of the essentialist foundations of subalternity, foregrounding the disparateness of the subaltern subjects and agencies. The life narrative figures forth a new subaltern modernity exposing the betrayal of our corporatized economy and polity at large.
Volume 11 | 11-Special Issue
Pages: 816-819
DOI: 10.5373/JARDCS/V11SP11/20193101