Gayatri Spivak: The Margins and the Center

Referred to as the “doyenne of post-colonial studies,” Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak has been a trailblazer “of the margins,” wrestling with hegemonic narratives of Western and non-Western canons to explore deconstructed meanings of and relationships between culture, feminism, language, the postcolonial, privilege, and power. This pioneering cultural critic, feminist, and literary theorist is widely cited in a range of disciplines, and has written extensively on Marx, Foucault, Derrida, Freud, Mahasweta Devi, and many others. Spivak’s work questions the nature, practice, and application of theory, especially questioning Western theoretical texts’ Eurocentric and imperialist constraints that potentially muzzle the discourses and voices of the powerless, the underprivileged, and/or the subaltern. As she comments in The Post-Colonial Critic, “My position is generally a reactive one. I am viewed by Marxists as too codic, by feminists as too male-identified, by indigenous theorists as too committed to Western Theory. I am uneasily pleased about this.”

In this four week course, we will study selections from some of Spivak’s most important work, which spans more than forty years, beginning with her groundbreaking translation and heralded preface of Derrida’s Of Grammatology and tackling what many consider her theoretical opus, the 1985 essay “Can the Subaltern Speak?” Each week, we will also read supplementary materials from literary critics and postcolonial scholars, including Terry Eagleton, Edward Said, Homi Bhabha, and Achille Mbembe, amongst others, for comparative insight into the diverse approaches to the post-colonial condition and post-colonial theory.

Instructors will contact students approximately one week prior to the first class with reading assignments and details about the course location.