"Contingencies of Silence: Subalternity, the EZLN, and the Accounting of Speech in Latin America" (original) (raw)
Related papers
On the Margins: Theorising Spivak's "Can the Subaltern Speak?"
Ars Artium, Vol. 6, 2018
Postcolonialism is the study of theory and literature which analyses the after effects of the colonial era, that is, the effects of the coloniser on the colonised. One of the essential threads in the realm of Postcolonialism is the Subaltern, a term coined and adopted by the Marxist philosopher and theorist, Antonio Gramsci. The term is used as a reference to the colonised South Asian sub-continent and encompasses an area in the study of culture, history, human geography, sociology, anthropology and literature. This paper traces the history of Subaltern Studies in India pioneered by Ranajit Guha and focuses on the work of Gayatri Spivak who had developed this idea a step further and asks the question, "Can the Subaltern Speak?", and throws light on the comprehension of historical narratives of women's resistance in India.
Gayatri Spivak remains undoubtedly a prominent postcolonial theorist, who has attained international fame and eminence. In fact, her writings and fields of interest are diverse, starting from her engagement with the Marxist critique of capitalism, through her critique of imperialism and colonial discourse, to her feminist perspective on deconstruction. Since the discussion of the concept of subalternity is overriding and central to Spivak's work, my paper endeavors to offer an insightful analysis of such a controversial concept and to problematize the function of the postcolonial intellectual. To attain the afore-mentioned objectives, I shall draw most of my insights from Spivak's monumental article " Can the Subaltern Speak? " In my paper, I shall first trace back the origin of the concept of subalternity in the theoretical formulations of both Gramsci and Guha. Then, I shall study the way in which Spivak draws most of her arguments from the criticism she directs mainly to Guha's essentialist premises. I shall then show how she builds upon her arguments to come to her provocative conclusion that the subaltern cannot speak, which I find very significant in her work. One of the central conclusions that I drew from her article is principally related to the functions she assigns to the postcolonial critic. Put simply, the postcolonial intellectual and historian should touch the consciousness of the people instead of merely theorizing about the nature and construction of
CONCEPTUALIZING SUBALTERN STUDIES WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO SPIVAK'S "CAN THE SUBALTERN SPEAK?"
In this article it is an attempt to analyses the origin and history subaltern studies series and makes a conceptual framework to analyze what is subaltern means? And how does subaltern can speak or can’t speak. Apparently it is the powerful orthodoxy versus oppressed in relation to history or story writings which mostly were previously of elites and Britisher and the authentic credibility to oppressed who actually helped were denied.
A Deadly Silence: Spivak’s Subaltern in Critical Cultural Studies
2014
Over twenty years have passed since Professor Gayatri Chakrovorty Spivak invited us to consider how our scholarly practices might be helping to silence the subaltern. Professor Lough invites us to reconceptualize our silencing of the subaltern as part of a much longer and deeper project to silence the body as such – the body of language, the body of knowledge, the body of literature. Recuperating this body will require more than talk. It will engage our bodies.
Revisiting “Can the subaltern speak?”: introduction
Qualitative Research Journal, 2018
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide a sense of the perspectives that guide the collection of articles. Design/methodology/approach This paper provides an introductory essay regarding the contributions and critics associated with Spivak’s work. Findings In addition, the contents lay out brief descriptions of the articles included in the collection. Originality/value The notion of revisiting “Can the subaltern speak?” provides authors with innovative and provocative ideas to guide their submissions.
Literary Horizon An International Peer-Reviewed English Journal, 2021
Gayatri Spivak, a leading critic, has created a storm in the intellectual world with her the most cited and influential essay “Can the Subaltern Speak?” Here we will discuss about her essay, the concept subaltern, and its theoretical framework, the group of subaltern theorists and the stand taken by Gayatri Spivak. She has extended her discourse to a large variety of topics such as Marxism, Feminism and Deconstruction. The objective of this chapter is to understand the position of Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak in Criticism, her main works and contribution in Criticism.
“There was this Goat” a case study through Spivak’s “Can the Subaltern Speak?”
2015
This essay explores some key aspects of Notrose Nobomvu Konile’s case as documented in There was this Goat Investigating the Truth Commission Testimony of Notrose Nobomvu Konile by using the work of postcolonial literary critic Gayatri Spivak, specifically her essay “Can the Subaltern Speak?” The article will be divided between a discussion of Spivak’s essay and its meaning for the case described in There was this Goat. In her piece, Spivak painstakingly deconstructs the hierarchies that operate when the subaltern and the intellectual come into contact with the aim of portraying or representing the former. Thus, when reading There was this Goat is difficult not to remember and perhaps start thinking this case through the perspective offered by Spivak in her essay. I argue that Konile’s case operates in a multilayered fashion which has many points in common with Spivak’s attempt to understand and disentangle the complexities of the subaltern space, the voice, and the politics of translation and meaning.
For speaking against silence: Spivak's subaltern ethics in the field
Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 2018
This paper addresses the gap between accounts of subalternity in the field and theoretical positions on ethics we find in the work of Gayatri Spivak. I provide a reading of Spivak's writing on subalternity and the ethics of representation to explicate three ethical injunctions connected to: (i) an antifoundationalist approach to subalternity; (ii) ‘hyper-self-reflexivity’ of an investigating subject; and (iii) the imperative to name subalternity. Setting these ethical injunctions in the field, I draw on data from fieldwork with development workers on a gender education project in rural Madhya Pradesh, India, to discuss gender-based discrimination, violence and intervention. The discussion draws out the ways that proximity to what Spivak terms the ‘radical alterity’ of Otherness can contribute to a more ethical framework for engagement with subalternity. The paper argues that Spivak's work is not intended to implore us to further silencing, rather we must apply her work on the ground towards an ethical engagement with subalternity that rests on a mode of speaking for and about in an antifoundationalist and hyper-self-reflexive manner.