Can the subaltern speak? : reflections on the history of an idea

Select an Action

Title:

Author:

Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. Can the subaltern speak.

ISBN:

9780231143844

9780231143851

9780231512855

Publication Information:

New York : Columbia University Press, c2010.

Physical Description:

x, 318 p. ; 23 cm.

Contents:

Part 1. Text -- "Can the Subaltern Speak?" revised edition, from the "History" chapter of Critique of Postcolonial Reason / Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak -- Part 2 Contexts and Trajectories -- Reflections on "Can the Subaltern Speak?" Subaltern Studies after Spivak / Partha Chatterjee -- Postcolonial Studies: Now That's History / Ritu Birla -- The Ethical Affirmation of Human Rights: Gayatri Spivak's Intervention / Drucilla Cornell -- Part 3 Speaking of (Not) Hearing -- Death and the Subaltern / Rajeswawri Sunder Rajan -- Between Speaking and Dying: Some Imperatives in the Emergence of the Subaltern in the Context of U.S. Slavery / Abdul JanMohamed -- Subalterns at War: First World War colonial forces and the politics of the Imperial War Graves Commission / Michele Barrett -- Part 4 Contemporaneities and Possible Futures: (Not) Speaking and Hearing -- Biopower and the New International Division of Reproductive Labor / Pheng Cheah -- Moving from Subalternity: Indigenous Women in Guatemala and Mexico / Jean Franco -- Part 5 In Response -- In Response: Looking Back, Looking Forward / Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak -- Appendix: Can the subaltern speak? Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, from Marxixm and the interpretation of history.

Personal Subject:

Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty-Criticism and interpretation.

Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. Can the subaltern speak.

Subject Term:

Feminist theory.

Postcolonialism.

Added Author:

Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. Can the subaltern speak.

Morris, Rosalind C.

Copies:

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Item Barcode	Shelf Number	Copy	Status
Searching... 1:IIEMSA	1:GEN-BOOK	33168025447208	325.3 M877C 2010	1	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak's original essay "Can the Subaltern Speak?" transformed the analysis of colonialism through an eloquent and uncompromising argument that affirmed the contemporary relevance of Marxism while using deconstructionist methods to explore the international division of labor and capitalism's "worlding" of the world. Spivak's essay hones in on the historical and ideological factors that obstruct the possibility of being heard for those who inhabit the periphery. It is a probing interrogation of what it means to have political subjectivity, to be able to access the state, and to suffer the burden of difference in a capitalist system that promises equality yet withholds it at every turn.

Since its publication, "Can the Subaltern Speak?" has been cited, invoked, imitated, and critiqued. In these phenomenal essays, eight scholars take stock of the effects and response to Spivak's work. They begin by contextualizing the piece within the development of subaltern and postcolonial studies and the quest for human rights. Then, through the lens of Spivak's essay, they rethink historical problems of subalternity, voicing, and death. A final section situates "Can the Subaltern Speak?" within contemporary issues, particularly new international divisions of labor and the politics of silence among indigenous women of Guatemala and Mexico. In an afterword, Spivak herself considers her essay's past interpretations and future incarnations and the questions and histories that remain secreted in the original and revised versions of "Can the Subaltern Speak?"--both of which are reprinted in this book.