Right to Dream! A Postcolonial Reading of Tameez, a Dreamer in Elias’ Khowabnama as a Subaltern Victim of Capitalism

The book Khowabmana by Akhtaruzzaman Elias reflects the 'hegemony' of the bourgeoisie class: in the beginning of the novel as Jamindars and later on as emerging capitalists.The hegemony puts the planters like Tameez under a 'false consciousness' that leads him to extreme misery.Thus, he becomes the victim of capitalism and a voiceless subaltern.This study attempts to identify 'capitalism' as the catalyst of class antagonism, side by side, it also discovers 'capitalism' as a 'fake dream' which makes tenant planters like Tameez a subaltern.This study is guided by a number of theoretical frameworks, for instance, Marxist idea of 'capitalism' and 'class antagonism' along with Engle's concept of 'false consciousness'.Gramcsi's concept of 'hegemony ' (1999) is used to identify the concealed politics…