The subaltern can speak: interrogating narratives of exploitation in Kaine Agary’s <i>Yellow Yellow</i>

Abstract

Imperial incursion into most countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and so on have been contextualized, re contextualized, and aggregated in strongly evocative linguistic terms. Arising from that background are such terms as “subaltern”, “postcolonial”, and so on. Many disciplines have appropriated this omnibus structure in their advancement of knowledge. Literary studies draws from this composite structure in its mediation on this existential condition. This is where subaltern literature comes into play. Subaltern literature has consistently portrayed colonial encounter or the aftermath of colonial encounter. It is categorized as postcolonial literature. It often speaks back to the former colonial masters; although Spivak in her seminal essay posits that the subaltern cannot speak. Her assertion is predicated on many stifling conditions the subaltern face. Mindful of Spivak‟s position, this paper argues that the subaltern can speak, irrespective of how they speak and when they speak. In the current study, they speak of multiple exploitation of: the colonial / postcolonial space, the subaltern population, and ultimately the women subaltern. This study, through the postcolonial theory, interrogates the different shades of exploitation represented in Kaine Agary‟s Yellow Yellow. The discovery is that both women and the environment in the text are victims of exploitative colonial, postcolonial and patriarchal structures.