An Analysis of Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak's Can the Subaltern Speak?

A classic postcolonial studies text, Spivak's 1988 essay argues that a core problem for the poorest and most marginalized in society (the subalterns) is that they have no platform to express their concerns and no voice to affect policy debates or demand a fairer share of society's goods. The women among them, says Spivak, are doubly oppressed.