Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak Can the Subaltern Speak? An understanding of contemporary relations of power‚ and of the Western intellectual’s role within them‚ requires an examination of the intersection of a theory of representation and the political economy of global capitalism. A theory of representation points‚ on the one hand‚ to the domain of ideology‚ meaning‚ and subjectivity‚ and‚ on the other hand‚ to the domain of politics‚ the state‚ and the law. The original title of this paper was
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Can the Subaltern Speak? – Summary Gayatri Spivak Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak is an unsettling voice in literary theory and especially‚ postcolonial studies. She has describes herself as a “practical deconstructionist feminist Marxist” and as a “gadfly”. She uses deconstruction to examine "how truth is constructed" and to deploy the assertions of one intellectual and political position (such as Marxism) to "interrupt" or "bring into crisis" another (feminism‚ for example). In her work‚ she combines
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to speak out of the women’s problems and needs. Their desires always get lost before the grand narratives of patriarchy‚ even the national history and narrative rarely recognize the major contribution of the females in the texts or document. Whenever the woman is portrayed‚ she is put in the second position below the man. She is always kept silent. Identifying this issue‚ Indian critic and feminist Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak asks— can the subaltern speak? in her essay ‘Can the Subaltern Speak?’.
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Sex says‚ “…she is simply what men decree;… she is the incidental‚ the inessential as opposed to the essential.” (Beauvoir 16) In the Indian context‚ women as gendered subalterns have a very limited role to play within the society. They are mere objects of desire to men. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak in her essay “Can the Subaltern Speak?”‚ originally published in Cary Nelson and Lawrence Grossberg’s Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture (1988) says‚ “As object of colonialist historiography and as
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“Can the Subaltern Speak” Response Spivak’s article‚ while difficult to get through‚ brings up many interesting points. She ultimately comes to the conclusion that the subaltern cannot speak. Yet in coming to that conclusion she explains reasons why they cannot. Early into the essay‚ Spivak asks the question‚ “Are those who act and struggle mute‚ as opposed to those who act and speak?” (70). She asks this question in response to Deleuze’s pronouncement that‚ “‘[a] theory is like a box of tools…
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and significant to explore the philosophical concern with truth from a vantage point that crosses traditions‚ instead of looking at it exclusively within one single philosophical tradition (i.e.‚ the Western philosophical tradition). Such exploration can not only enhance our understanding of the nature‚ scope and characteristics of the philosophical concern with truth but also provide alternative perspectives to our treatment of some of the involved issues. Clearly‚ the current essay has neither space
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Spivak and Kincaid: An Analysis of the Reproductive Rights of Subaltern Colonizers utilize unethical reproduction as a form of domination against women-- and in some cases of resistance‚ many women may refuse to bear children. Xuela‚ the protagonist of Jamaica Kincaid’s The Autobiography of My Mother is the representation of the colonized in the act of rebellion against their reproduction. Although she refuses to have children‚ even after pregnancy-- she permeates self-love for her own body
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Natives Gone?(Chow‚1993)‚ reminds us that‚ for Gayatri Spivak‚ the subaltern discourse is ultimately not translatable to the dominant episteme‚ the power- knowledge is unable to hear the actual voice of the subaltern–that is what Spivak’s “silent” subaltern means. According to Spivak the subaltern cannot speak because they do not “speak” in a “language” that is already recognized by the dominant culture or power regime. The subaltern who cannot speak is not a dumb creature‚ but one whose voice‚ or
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Concept of Subaltern and Subaltern Studies Dr. Abhishek Gopal* ’Subaltern ’ originally is a term for subordinates in military hierarchies which is elaborated in the work of Antonio Gramsci to refer to groups who are outside the established structure of political representation. Subaltern was first used in a nonmilitary sense by Marxist Antonio Gramsci. Some believe that he used the term as a synonyms for proletariat‚ possibly as a codeword in order to get his writings past prison censors‚ while
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LEE 1 Silent Trauma: Representing Indian Partition in Subaltern Studies‚ Bapsi Sidhwa’s Cracking India I. Subaltern Studies: Silence of History of Partition and Subaltern In 1947‚ India gained its independence following 350 years of British colonization. At the same time‚ due to the serious communal conflicts that had long existed among the three main communities in India—Hindus‚ Muslims‚ and Sikhs‚ the Independence brought the Partition of India to create two newly independent
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