The mediated voices of subalternity. Colonisation stamps

Abstract

In this article we will analyse the following three works: Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko: or, the Royal Slave (1688); Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels (1726), and Aurora Bertrana’s Paradisos Oceànics (1930) with the aim of studying how these three Western authors represented and fought the results of colonialism and slavery that they observed in their travels. Specifically, we will focus on the concepts of Orientalism and third spaces (Homi Bhabha, Edward Said, Salman Rushdie) and subalternity (Gayatri Spivak) to present the strategy these three authors used to subvert the dominant ideology. In all cases, despite the manifest desire to recognize the other, the Western point of view along with the social representations that derive from it, is present in all three works. Behn and Bertrana narrate what they observe, and we find instances of multilingualism and multiculturalism, which give rise to the generation of third spaces where the dominated peoples must exist. Swift creates fictional worlds, which Gulliver visits exclusively, always with the aim of respect for the other and constant denunciation of the colonial occupation, but to do so he must use different self-censorship strategies to ensure that his work will be published.