Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak is a professor of literature and feminist critic at Columbia University. She is also a founding member of the establishment’s Institute for Comparative Literature and Society. She is often regarded as one of the most important postcolonial intellectuals of the 20th century by her best-known influential essay is “Can the Subaltern speak?”, and she has also translated various works by Mahasweta Devi. In 2012, she was awarded the Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy as she was considered a critical theorist and educator who speaks against intellectual colonialism.
In her 1988 essay, Spivak argues that the main problem for the poor and most marginalized is that they have no voice in society and are not able to affect policy debates. Gayatri Spivak’s work focuses on the idea of agency. This paper discusses how western scholars have inadvertently reproduced hegemonic structures in their works. She is a scholar, and she is acutely aware of the difficulties of presuming to speak for the subalterns that she writes about. Her work is typically viewed as a delicate exercise in the analysis of interpretation, focusing on the issues of meaning. Interpretation is crucial work, as it tackles the issue of how to treat subalterns. It is a matter of how to treat them and Spivak takes a stand against a specifically intellectual form of oppression and marginalization.
By the “Can the Subaltern Speak?”, Spivak established herself as a feminist who focuses on women’s history, geography, and class. She is also known as a critic who has feminized and deconstructed notions of deconstruction. As the speaker, she played an important role to point out and critic those unequal in the society by her accurate and vivid words like the sentence that she interprets the relationship between the colonizers and the natives, “White men are saving the brown women from brown men”.
References:
Graham K. Riach. “An Analysis of Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s Can the Subaltern Speak?”, 2017
MORRIS, ROSALIND C., editor. “Can the Subaltern Speak?: Reflections on the History of an Idea.” Columbia University Press, 2010. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7312/morr14384.
Gayatri C. Spivak’s Biography. Columbia university department of English and Comparative Literature. https://english.columbia.edu/content/gayatri-c-spivak
This post provided such a detailed layout of Spivak’s style! Her accomplishments are very intriguing. I honestly wasn’t sure what “hegemonic structure” meant before reading your post, but now I am excited to read from her perspective. She seems to be extremely powerful in her philosophical analyses. I don’t fully understand the quote you pulled from her essay at the end of your presentation, but I think her elaboration will be very interesting.
Your post was very informative about Spivak and her background. I found the term “intellectual colonialism” to be very interesting. In all of our readings that address imperialism and its impacts, I have searched for a word to describe the eurocentric focus of knowledge, and that phrase is exactly what I needed. I found it very interesting to consider not only who has the access to knowledge, but who is being listened to. We often discuss the right to free speech, but the right to be heard is equally as important in terms of having an impact on the international community. The quote you included perfectly summarizes how eurocentric perspectives can be used to justify further colonialism, such as “saving” brown women from brown men.
I find her work fascinating. I really like how you stated that she emphasized that she is not speaking as the poor/marginalized, but for them. This distinction is so important and it draws back to what we discussed in previous weeks regarding how the perspective of the author can be very influential in terms of how a certain situation is perceived. I like how you touched on interpretation and how it is especially important when discussion topics such as oppression.
After learning about Spivak’s great successes with her activism I must say the picture you chose to represent her seems very fitting. I am excited to learn more about her and understanding of the subaltern and how that equates to oppression. It makes me think about the current events happening in Afghanistan with the Taliban take over and how they are marginalizing the women.
Spivak’s work sounds extremely interesting. Your post did a great job explaining what her reasons for challenging the structure of western academia. I am curious to see exactly how she goes about arguing against such a large and stable structure. It is interesting to hear her idea about the poor being marginalized into not having a collective voice. This is an interesting concept that deals with power structures and I am excited to hear more about what she has to say on this topic.
This post offers a very valuable insight to Spivak’s background that allowed her to reach the intellectual understanding about the role of subalterns and the way that they affect the role of the marginalized “others” of society. It is very interesting that you brought up her feminist background, because with this week’s reading of Recitatif made think about subalterns and oppression from solely a racial light, but Spivak makes it about women and all other marginalized groups of society as well, which really expanded the way that I think about colonialism and its effects.
SEE, I mean here. In this blog!
This post does a great job of giving context to what we are reading this week. It was helpful to understand Spivak’s background and how knowledgeable she is. It will be beneficial to understand that Spivak recognizes inequalities in society, as that is a common theme in our curriculum and will come up in her work. I am looking forward to learning more about the idea of “subalterns” and how Spivak incorporates her beliefs on society into her writing.
I think it is interesting to think about how most times in history, it did take the voice of the compassionate un-marginalized to help make change for the subaltern. For example, black people heavily benefited from the support of white allies throughout the Civil Rights movement. I am looking forward to reading more about this idea after reading your context presentation.
This post does an excellent job of providing context for this reading, and I am intrigued to read this tomorrow. I have not yet read “Can The Subaltern Speak?” but knowing the background of the author and her style gives me lots of good insight to go into this reading with. I think that it is very important to tithing critically about hone we are speaking OVER others instead of speaking FOR others, and whether we should even speak for others, and, rather, amplify the voices of the marginalized. Great job on this post.
I enjoyed reading more about Spivak’s background and her ideas about marginalization. I am interested in what intellectual colonialism means and how Spivak defines it. I believe her take that marginalized people are often silenced because they are not represented in the major ‘voice’ is an important thing to talk about. This has been a common theme in our previous readings this semester.
I enjoyed reading more about Spivak’s background and some of her findings and accomplishments. Her ideas about marginalized communities not being heard because they are not represented in the major ‘voice’ are very interesting. This has been more or less a common theme in our previous readings this semester. I also enjoyed reading about her challenging western intellectualism, which I believe is an essential thing to do. Western intellectualism usually chooses to only tell one narrative. I look forward to learning more about Spivak.
I throughly enjoyed reading your post since I previously had no prior knowledge about Spivak. Learning about her background helps me understand where she came up with these ideas about the subaltern. It also helps connect this idea back to One and the other since the subaltern may be seen as the other. This means that the subaltern doesn’t necessarily have to be seen in racial aspect it also can be for other groups who are seen as the other like Spivak mentioned about women. I also like how you touched on the fact that we all the freedom of speech but that doesn’t necessarily mean we all are heard equally. It is important that everyone is heard equally in order to allow everyone to have an equal part in society
This post provides great background information about Spivak. I am now more excited to read her work and to be able to connect her background to what the literature is about. As you mentioned she is not speaking as the poor but rather for them. Knowing her background allows you to truly connect what she means by this statement and know that what she says in her literature is true. I am excited to read more on this idea and to read her literature for the week. Great post!
Thank you for providing the information about Spivak and her ideas about female’s rights and uequal rights. I really agree that marginalized people always lack a place for them to speak out and fight for their rights. It’s really inportant to care about these things. Also, the sentance “White men are saving the brown women from brown men” is really interesting, not just between colonizers and the natives, but also happened in today’s society. It’s a big topic between different kinds of people now.
Ashamed to say, I have never read anything about Spivak before. This post really inspired me. In Chinese academic circles and literary theory criticism circles, Spivak is only known as the translator and interpreter of deconstruction master Derrida’s works, and is not regarded as a postcolonial theorist with his own theoretical system and unique criticism methods. After reading this post, I am truly interested in reading more information about her. Very nice post at all!
I found what you said very interesting especially about Spivak thoughts on women rights and the unequal between them. I agree that without representation oppressed groups have no voice. I like how you were able to connect her background with the view she told this story. I found myself wanting to read the reading again after your post!
I really enjoyed reading about Gayatri Spivak and her thoughts on women’s rights. While reading about Spivak I learned that she believe that the poor have no say in society. As I read more about Spivak’s thoughts I couldn’t agree more that the poor are still oppressed in society today. However, I believe this can be changed through the public education system. I believe that if the poor were given better educational opportunities it would allow them to expand their knowledge and achieve numerous accomplishments.
I think that this post is extremely intriguing and I gained new knowledge on Spivak and her views on women’s rights and inequality. I’ve never heard of Spivak before this but she should have been someone that I should know of. I agree with her thoughts on how the poor and marginalized groups have less say within society.
I honestly have never heard of Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak before and after reading about her publications and background, I feel guilty that I don’t know who she is. It is inspiring to see how brave and outspoken she is since she discussed colonial oppression as an Indian woman. Also, this makes me very eager to learn more about comparative literature knowing that there are many great works that are underreported.
I have never heard of Spivak or her work. I truly think it is amazing. I would have to agree with her outlook on how the poor and marginalized are unable to have an impact on policy making or society in any way. But can you elaborate on why she thinks western powers have reproduced hegemonic structures and how? Moreover, though, she embodies ideals that every society should have. Freedom of speech is important and it’s more important to make sure everyone has access to it. I’m sure a lot of positive change could be made in the world by listening and acting on the advice/experience of groups that do not have their voices heard by elite government officials.
Your post was very informative about something I had no prior knowledge of. Spivak’s background gives a clear connection to the beliefs and opinions she expresses in her work. She has a very strong and credible background that makes her work hard to ignore. When you mentioned that she spoke about hegemonic structures, I wasn’t entirely sure what it was and now I know it isn’t the best way to positively help subalterns who were being oppressed because of this.
See: I mean as I see your comment here, you have access to post your presentation as well.
Your post gave a lot of background about Spivak and how her story came to be. I read the reading before reading your post and if I would have read your post prior I believe I would have had a little more background about it. Your post was very informative and gave good insights into her life. Good post!
Thank you for sharing about Spivak’s article. I think I’m the context the subaltern refers to the minority group who has trouble express their thoughts due to social injustice.
I greatly enjoyed learning about Spivak, and I found the post to be incredibly informative. I specifically enjoyed learning how she was awarded the “Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy.” The background about Spivak surely provided useful information especially concerning the readings, particularly Racatitif. Spivak’s thoughts are also relevant to the idea of social injustices, as seen throughout the readings.
Great content right here. I feel that since Spivak can tell that the subaltern cannot speak for themselves, she goes ahead to tell their story from the perspective of a colonized group so that they can be heard even without speaking. She is like giving voice to the oppressed subalterns so that justice can prevail.
Great job overall! I really enjoyed this read and everything about it. I love the fact that she knows that her speaking for the subalterns may come with issues. I believe that if I would have read this before the weekly reading then it would have been better. Either way, thank you!!
This post has clear background and introduction of Spivak. The style, background of the author, main idea, and brief interpretation are included in the post, which is quite helpful to help me to understand the overall essay “Can the Subaltern Speak?” On the other hand, Spivak as a feminist talks about the situation of colonialism and women. The countries are colonized and women are somehow on the same page because they are the weak group, which means that they have no voice in society and are not able to affect the policy debates. I think it is important to bravely point out that unequal phenomena in society.
I enjoyed reading about Spivak, she dedicated herself to women’s history, geography and class. She also was able to speak for the subaltern, she got this story and out and people thinking about what happened. The post was definitely informative for myself, I’m in a gender ,sex power class this semester and this just shows how far feminist will always go and that’s awesome. Being able to show how feminism is used for a positive impact and not to just tear down others, as its perceived.
It was very interesting to read about Spivak’s great devotion towards speaking against intellectual colonialism. The word hegemony, the dominance of one group over another, was something unfamiliar to me until now. I loved learning about how she discusses how subalterns impact marginalized groups and learn more about women’s history in her work.
I find Spivaks devotion to equality empowering. She decides to use her great intellect in service of activism. She believes that there is a long way to go for women and minority groups to attain true equality and she strives to help them get there. She is representing the subaltern as best she can, pushing to make even the lowest of social classes have a voice.