DISCLAIMER: This was Postcolonial Critics Post-test Assignment for Pujarisma Indah Nirmala, but originally written by me. (yea, I am delightful to be joki tugas :p)
Anyway, Asquith's poem mesmerizes me. Please take one moment of silence for his bravery and spirit to criticizes his own family. In my humblest expression, I adore him the first time I read this poem.
Abstract The Fallen Subaltern is written to tribute the death of one soldier during the war. This paper will discuss the subalternity applied in this poem and also the writer will find the connection between this poem to the poet’s personal life. The theory used to analyze this poem is Subaltern by Spivak and Gramsci and also close-reading method will be used to find the materials. It can be concluded that the superiors which are the powerholders and governments are targetted as the perpetrators of subalternity. The writer also found that the death of Raymond Asquith triggers the poet to write this poem, both as the tribute for his late brother and as the critique towards his father who is also recognized as the leader of the Britain Empire during the World War I. Keywords: civilians, honor, soldiers, subaltern, World War I.
1. Introduction
World War I occurred globally between two sides for 4 years which started from 1914 to 1918. It involved many countries that are divided into two great power strongholds (Seymour, 1916: 35). This war divided the world into the Allied Power against the Central Power. There are numerous countries gathered into the Allied Power such as Britain, France, Italy, Portugal, Russia, Japan, and other countries. On the opposite, the Central powers included Germany and other countries. It ended with the victory of Allied Powers.
For this is the First Great War happened in the world, it involved a lot of soldiers from each country embroiled in the war. This war covered approximately 70 million military resources (Keegan, 1998: 8) and it ended with 13 million death total as the result of atrocity, famine, and loss.
Herbert Asquith expresses his honor to British soldiers from World War I and deplores the subalternity perceived by the World War I soldiers and he enshrines this debauchery in this poem. He is also known as the youngest son of British Prime Minister, Herbert H. Asquith who also joined the World War I. This develops the discussion to be more thought-provoking. Therefore, the writer will uncover his intended point of subalternity which sets on the World War I background and also traverses his critique to his older brother as per to this poem.
2. Theory and Methods
2.1 Theory
2.1.1 Subaltern Theory
Antonio Gramsci and other post-colonial critics discovered the ‘Subaltern’ term. This theory refers to the inferior groups which are displaced and abandoned from the society. This affects the inferior groups’ status in society and it will also affects in their public opinion, mainly about their political voice (Young, 2003).
Spivak, an Indian philosopher concerning postcolonialism issue, stated that the subaltern splits the society into two groups which are The Self that is full of superior people and The Other which is the inferior groups with no power in the society (Young, 2003). Moreover, she notes that the concept of the subaltern is not only for the inferior social group, but also for people with limited access to speak up their thoughts (Setiawan, 2018: 2).
2.1.2 The Asquith’s Family Background
Herbert Henry Asquith, the poet’s father, was a British politician who also involved in World War I. He was the leader of the Britain Empire and he took a big part in the Great War. The poet himself decided not to follow his father’s path. Instead, he became a famous poet, novelist, and lawyer (The Times, 1947). It is written in some biography and articles that Beb—nickname of the Poet, often argued with his father. Beb’s older brother, Raymond Asquith was also killed in the Great War while his father was still on his service to the Britain Empire (The Times, 1916).
2.2 Methods
This paper uses a concise qualitative method that includes formal analysis and discussion to recognize the acquired data (Creswell, 1994: 21). To obtain a reflective discussion outcome, the writer uses contextual method which as described by Behrendt (2008), this method helps to interpret the data according to the current historical background. The data will be obtained using close-reading method or a compression data-finding after deeply reading the entire poem and also, the writer will find a number of secondary sources and supporting theories of such books, journals, and articles. This will involves data-fetching from the poet’s background.
3. Findings and Discussion
3.1 Subalternity Found in This Poem
It can be said that the main theme of this poem is the subaltern perceived by British soldiers during the Great War. Despite their stronghold won at that time, however, that war caused lots of loss including the plentiful numbers of people who die while serving their country. As we know that in World War I, lots of people were participated and joined as their dedication to their country.
As we know, the soldiers are meant to sacrifice their lives to serve the country. They are educated to serve the nation and they are sworn not to betray their superior’s command. However, in this poem, Beb’s depiction of the dead man is not the chosen-by-country soldier. Besides, he says, ‘We bear our friends without a sound’ which could develop two likelihoods.
The first likelihood is the dead man is his older brother, Raymond. This sounds plausible because Raymond has no military background. Instead, he was a witty lawyer and an Oxford scholar. Basically, his brother was just a civilian who urged to serve the country during that time. This links to the death ceremony that is not greatly celebrated and it remains with no sound because his older brother was not a soldier but a lawyer who decided to join the war.
The second likelihood is Beb was trying to depict the actual condition in that time where the subaltern is applied to the soldiers and volunteers. He writes, ‘Sun-God’ in his chariot glorious’ which can be concluded as the superior in their safest place tries to plant their ideology to the innocent civilians and soldiers. It can also be considered that the civilians and soldiers could not deny their ideology that will soon harms them. It can be clearly seen that Beb deplores this toxic ideology inculcation.
Beb writes, ‘fallen but victorious’ which can be also mean that although the result of the war gladdens the whole Britain Empire, however, there must be something to be sacrificed for, including the dead man. This condition really describes the subaltern during that time, because the soldiers are ordered to serve the country even if they should die in the warzone. Moreover, the ironic situation is the Superiors are not directly involved in this war. In the end, they only exploit innocent soldiers and civilians to fulfill their own selfish passion.
3.2 ‘The World’ Depiction
In the third stanza, Beb once tries to depict the world from his viewpoint. From the writer’s interpretation, Beb’s viewpoint towards the world he depicted is he sees the world as subalternity-vessel where people are forced to be involved in this system. The word ‘world’ does not mean the realm of earth, but this word means the warzone and battlefield during the Great War which prejudices lots of innocent people indirectly. The word ‘twilight’ refers to the false-peace and false-freedom that will occurred if people obeyed the superior’s ideology.
3.3 Beb Asquith’s Critique Towards His Father
As per to the writer’s interpretation, Beb might not only criticize the subalternity, but also in this poem, he criticizes his father and expresses his forlorn after losing his older brother Raymond. He sarcastically writes in the poem, the men who lie and listen, which implies that the politicians and the superiors during that time were all liars. Those men are depicted as liars who pretend to hear and understand them. Furthermore, this phrase also intends that the superiors may trick the innocent civilians to ‘achieve victory’ by sacrificing themselves in the Great War. Beb tries to accounts for his father’s position with the death of Raymond Asquith and other losses during World War I. He also criticizes the superior by saying ‘Who looked at danger with the eyes of laughter’ which represents the superior who devalued individual’s lives.
3.4 Beb Asquith’s Tribute Towards His Older Brother
Beb stated that this poem is a tribute to a soldier. However, it can be considered that one of the soldiers and volunteers that die during that time is Raymond Asquith, his brother. As per the 3.1 section, the writer had mentioned that his brother joined to dedicate himself to the war. Ironically, he died in the war. This develops misunderstandings and fights with his father in the latter days. Beb deplores that his father might indirectly killed his own son because of his ignorance towards the soldiers and volunteers. Therefore, this poem might be a tribute to his older brother who died while serving the nation.
4. Conclusion
It can be concluded that Beb tries to depict the subalternity that occured during the Great War in 1914-1918. The discussion conducted by the writer also leaks the internal conflict of The Asquith family and the link between Raymond Asquith’s death with this poem. A further research based on The Asquith family’s biography to leak and unveil the conflicts and its correlations toward this poem is recommended by the writer.
References
Asquith, Herbert. (1916). The Fallen Subaltern in The Volunteer, and other poems. London: Sidgwick & Jackson, Ltd.
Charles Seymour (1916). The Diplomatic Background of the War. Yale University Press.
Keegan, John (1998). The First World War. Hutchinson. ISBN 978-0-09-180178-6.
Ludden, David (ed). (2003). Reading Subaltern Studies: Critical History, Contested Meaning and the Globalisation of South Asia. Delhi: Permanent Black.
Setiawan, Rahmat. (2018). Subaltern, Politik Etis, dan Hegemoni dalam Perspektif Spivak. Surabaya: Jurnal Ilmu Sastra Poetika Vol. VI No.I Juli 2018.
Sharp, Joanne. (2008). Geographies of Postcolonialism, Chapter 6: Can the Subaltern Speak?. SAGE Publications.
The Times. (1916). Mr. Asquith's Bereavement – Message of Sympathy from the King. The Times Digital Archive.
The Times. (1947). Mr. Herbert Asquith – Poet and Novelist. The Times Digital Archive.
Young, Robert J. C. Postcolonialism: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.