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Summary
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (born 24 February 1942) is an Indian literary critic, a theorist, and a University Professor at Columbia University. She is best known for the essay "Can the Subaltern Speak?", considered a founding text of postcolonialism, and for her translation of Jacques Derrida's Of Grammatology. She describes herself as a "practical Marxist-feminist-deconstructionist". She is also a visiting faculty member at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta. Spivak is best known for her contemporary cultural and critical theories to challenge the "legacy of colonialism" and the way readers engage with literature and culture. She often focuses on the cultural texts of those who are marginalized by dominant western culture: the new immigrant; the working class; women; and other "postcolonial subjects". Spivak was born Gayatri Chakravorty, in Calcutta, India, 24 February 1942. After completing her school education from the St. John's Diocesan Girls' Higher Secondary School, she received an undergraduate degree in English at the Presidency College, Kolkata under the University of Calcutta (1959), graduating with first class honours and received gold medals for English and Bengali literature. After this, she completed her Master's in English from Cornell University, and then pursued her Ph.D. while teaching at the University of Iowa. Her dissertation was on W.B. Yeats, directed by Paul de Man at Cornell, titled Myself Must I Remake: The Life and Poetry of W.B. Yeats. At Cornell, she was the second woman elected to membership in the Telluride Association. She was briefly married to Talbot Spivak in the 1960s. The Bride Wore the Traditional Gold by Talbot Spivak is an autobiographical novel that deals with the early years of this marriage. In March 2007 Spivak became the University Professor at Columbia University, making her the only woman of colour to be bestowed the University's highest honour in its 264-year history.
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (born 24 February 1942) is an Indian literary critic, a theorist, and a University Professor at Columbia University. She is best known for the essay "Can the Subaltern Speak?", considered a founding text of postcolonialism, and for her translation of Jacques Derrida's Of Grammatology. She describes herself as a "practical Marxist-feminist-deconstructionist". She is also a visiting faculty member at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta. Spivak is best known for her contemporary cultural and critical theories to challenge the "legacy of colonialism" and the way readers engage with literature and culture. She often focuses on the cultural texts of those who are marginalized by dominant western culture: the new immigrant; the working class; women; and other "postcolonial subjects". Spivak was born Gayatri Chakravorty, in Calcutta, India, 24 February 1942. After completing her school education from the St. John's Diocesan Girls' Higher Secondary School, she received an undergraduate degree in English at the Presidency College, Kolkata under the University of Calcutta (1959), graduating with first class honours and received gold medals for English and Bengali literature. After this, she completed her Master's in English from Cornell University, and then pursued her Ph.D. while teaching at the University of Iowa. Her dissertation was on W.B. Yeats, directed by Paul de Man at Cornell, titled Myself Must I Remake: The Life and Poetry of W.B. Yeats. At Cornell, she was the second woman elected to membership in the Telluride Association. She was briefly married to Talbot Spivak in the 1960s. The Bride Wore the Traditional Gold by Talbot Spivak is an autobiographical novel that deals with the early years of this marriage. In March 2007 Spivak became the University Professor at Columbia University, making her the only woman of colour to be bestowed the University's highest honour in its 264-year history.
| Current Institution | Columbia University |
| Department | Postcolonialism |
| Disciplines | |
| Birthday | February 23,1942 |
| Address | 401A Interchurch Center New York New York 10027 United States Phone: (212) 851-0231 |
| Office Hours | Wed 1-3 pm by appointment |
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Education
Cornell University
Ph.D.,
Comparative Literature
(1967)
University of Calcutta
Presidency College, Kolkata
B.A.,
English
(1959)
Work Experience
University Professor
Columbia University
Achievements
General
Publication Summary
Publications
Books
- Myself, I Must Remake: The Life and Poetry of W.B. Yeats (1974).
- Of Grammatology (translation, with a critical introduction, of Derrida's text) (1976)
- In Other Worlds: Essays in Cultural Politics (1987).
- Selected Subaltern Studies (edited with Ranajit Guha) (1988)
- The Post-Colonial Critic (1990)
- Outside in the Teaching Machine (1993).
- The Spivak Reader (1995).
- A Critique of Postcolonial Reason: Towards a History of the Vanishing Present (1999).
- Death of a Discipline (2003).
- Other Asias (2005).
- An Aesthetic Education in the Era of Globalization (2012).
Literary
- Imaginary Maps (translation with critical introduction of three stories by Mahasweta Devi) (1994)
- Breast Stories (translation with critical introduction of three stories by Mahasweta Devi) (1997)
- Old Women (translation with critical introduction of two stories by Mahasweta Devi) (1999)
- Song for Kali: A Cycle (translation with introduction of story by Ramproshad Sen) (2000)
- Chotti Munda and His Arrow (translation with critical introduction of the novel by Mahasweta Devi) (2002)
- Red Thread (forthcoming)
Books
Death of a disciplineFor almost three decades, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak has been ignoring the standardized "rules" of the academy and trespassing across disciplinary boundaries. Today she remains one of...
A critique of postcolonial reasonAre the "culture wars" over? When did they begin? What is their relationship to gender struggle and the dynamics of class? In her first full treatment of postcolonial studies, a field... |
Other Publications
