Resistance and Fight Against Oppression and Patriarchy: Investigatingthe Subjugated Voices of Subaltern in the Skyfall

Abstract

The current study explores the plight, troubles, and struggle of subalterns and their endeavors to
raise their voices against the injustice incurred upon them in the novel Skyfall by award-winning
Pakistani author Saba Karim Khan. The current study focuses on subaltern studies and employs
the theoretical framework of postcolonial theory. The study aims to indicate ways to fulfill two
purposes in which subalterns, particularly female characters, are being marginalized and
suppressed due to the power structure of social and cultural factors and the misappropriation of
religious teachings, gender, and sexuality. Secondly, it identifies the resistance and fight against
oppression and patriarchy. The study is qualitative and uses the text as a primary source of data
collection, which is analyzed in the light of Gayatri Spivak's essay “Can the Subaltern Speak?”
Saba Karim Khan has beautifully interwoven themes of oppression, marginalization, gender, and
sexuality in the text and portrayal of social, political, economic, and religious forces in shaping
the power structure. Data analysis shows that oppression and marginalization are evident through
the subaltern characters of protagonist Rania Mirza Kasturi, her mother Jahaan e Rumi, and her
sister Ujala. On the other hand, textual evidence from the novel demonstrates that these characters
do not always remain silent victims and raise their voices against tyrannical forces to acquire their
identity as individuals