Subalternity in Anne Frank’s A Diary of a Young Girl

Amany Abdul Kadhom Abdul Ridha & Sabrina Abdulkadhom Abdulridha,

Department of English, Faculty of Education, Al-Zahraa University for Women, Iraq

Subalternity is a term that is connected to post-colonialism and is used for those who are attacked by the political system due to their differences like race. Subalterns use silence instead of reflecting their voices and are the forgotten species of society. Fear plays an important role in their lives, making them victims who are swallowed by the shadows of a dark totalitarian society. It seems that the social order echoes the idea of freedom of speech, yet subalterns live in bondage. Psychologically, Gayatri Spivak links subalternity to the postmodern period and questions whether subalterns have a voice. It is a rhetorical question and she speaks in a voice that is the complete opposite of subaltern. She represents their direct voice and pays attention to the feminine voices that are the superior part of the subaltern crowd. This research shows the example of a subaltern feminine voice that lives in silence until she is absorbed into the gloom of the social system of Nazi Germany. Her name is Anne Frank who was a German Jew whose family chose to live in silence during the Great War in the Netherlands.

Keywords: Subalternity, Race, Silence, Control, Forgotten

The above abstract is a part of the article which was accepted at The Eighth International Conference on Languages, Linguistics, Translation and Literature (WWW.LLLD.IR), 14-15 February 2023, Ahwaz.