Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (February 24th 1942 -) is an Indian literary theorist who came in prominence through her translation of Derrida's Of Grammatology. Her theoretical approach blends Feminist Studies, Deconstructionism, Postcolonialism and Marxism. She notes the integral role that imperialism, particularly Britain's imperialist history, plays a significant but unacknowledged role in literature. She also believed that studying imperialism can help elaborate on the division and "worlding" of the Third World. Spivak, further, criticizes early Western, Anglo-American feminist literature as creating divisions between "First World" and "Third World" feminist movements, as well as the obsession with individual "strong women" that ignores the global effects of colonialism.
Early Life and Education
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (February 24th, 1942) was born in Kolkata, India. She received a Sangeet Visharad degree in North Indian Classical Music in Bhatkhande Academy in 1953. She would graduate at Kolkata in 1959, and then go on to study in Cambridge and Cornell Unviersity(PH.D.) until 1967.She would later go on to teach English and comparative literature in Iowa, Texas, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Columbia University. He was appointed University Professor at Columbia in 2007. Her translation of Derrida's De la grammatologie in 1967 raised her to prominence.
Other Works
- Can the Subaltern Speak? (1985)
- Essays in Cultural Politics (1987)
- The Post-Colonial Critic (1990)
- Thinking Academic Freedom in Gendered Post-Coloniality (1992)
- Outside in the Teaching Machine (1993)
- A Critique of Postcolonial Reason (1999)
- Death of a Discipline (2003)
- Other Asias (2005).
Theoretical Approach
Spivak believes that the study of imperialism and its influences on British literature can help explain the "worlding" of Third World countries - essentially understanding the formation of this "other" as seen through discourse influenced by a colonizing history. She saw the Third World as much a part of the metropolitan as the metropolitan was part of the Third World. Her ideas resonate strongly with the ideals of hybridity and interconnectedness as expressed byNew Historicism and Homi K. Bhabha.
Spivak criticized early Anglo-American feminist literature and literary criticism, essentially their "images-of-women" feminism for their narcissistic obsession with the individualist "strong woman" that compromised and was even blind to the influences of colonialism and imperialism. Spivak believed that the sense of independence and individuality possessed by these critics and authors was earned on the backs of women from the Third World, seeing these Third World women as weaker, disrespectful, and lacking the impetus and self-assurance of Anglo-American women. Moreover, in telling women from the Third World to "respect themselves" and challenge their societies (by openly defying harmful customs), Spivak believes these women take on the characteristics of Imperialists and imperial delusions, working under assumptions and self-assured beliefs that are blind to the actuality of the situations they judge.
The Subaltern
Spivak's work Can the Subaltern Speak(1985) addresses the issue of the oppressed Third World woman, particularly in terms of Indian women and their practice of sati - self-immolation following the death of their husband. Dating back to British colonialism, imperial powers often saw themselves as being "betters" who sought to abolish destructive and barbaric customs. The origin of the question as to whether the "subaltern" (people of inferior power) can "speak" finds itself in the question of whether a woman can really choose whether she wants to be immolated or not.
On one hand, a woman is bound by convention, tradition and faith to commit to sati. Her "choice" to immolate may not be her choice, but the choice of her society and cultural expectations. However, to dispute her and claim that her choice is not her own is again to deprive her decision. As British colonizers faced the dilemma during their time - choosing to abolish the practice and risk damaging tradition, or let it continue and live with the damning practice - so does Spivak and her readers in ascertaining the true nature of the choice women make.
Spivak's work has spurred both controversy and discourse, and given her multifacted influences, she finds it difficult to reach any conclusion to answer whether the "subaltern can speak". Although she did eventually "conclude" that "the subaltern cannot speak" (which unto itself as caused great division and argument), the nature of Spivak's discourse itself, rather than the ultimate result, is what spurs postcolonial studies into the complexity of not only interweaving cultures, but also the preservation of "individual" cultures in the international modernity.