Antwort Is Spivak a Marxist? Weitere Antworten – What is the Spivak theory

Is Spivak a Marxist?
Spivak says that a clear and transparent language is needed to represent the subaltern or the oppressed people. Systems of representation are controlled, linguistic and philosophical representation masks the real social and political inequalities.the Subaltern Speak ' (1988), Gayatri C. Spivak asks: “Can the subaltern (as woman) speak” She adds that “the subaltern as female cannot be heard or read” (308). She concludes that “the subaltern cannot speak” (308).Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (born February 24, 1942, Calcutta [now Kolkata], India) is an Indian literary theorist, feminist critic, postcolonial theorist, and professor of comparative literature noted for her personal brand of deconstructive criticism, which she called “interventionist.”

What is the subaltern ideology : In postcolonial theory, the term subaltern describes the lower social classes and the Other social groups displaced to the margins of a society; in an imperial colony, a subaltern is a native man or woman without human agency, as defined by his and her social status.

Why can’t the subaltern speak

A critical analysis of Spivak's classic 1988 postcolonial studies essay, in which she argues that a core problem for the poorest and most marginalized in society (the subalterns) is that they have no platform to express their concerns and no voice to affect policy debates or demand a fairer share of society's goods.

What is Gayatri Spivak best known for : Considered one of the most influential postcolonial intellectuals, Spivak is best known for her essay Can the Subaltern Speak and for her translation of and introduction to Jacques Derrida's De la grammatologie.

A critical analysis of Spivak's classic 1988 postcolonial studies essay, in which she argues that a core problem for the poorest and most marginalized in society (the subalterns) is that they have no platform to express their concerns and no voice to affect policy debates or demand a fairer share of society's goods.

To Spivak, Subaltern women, are subjected to oppression more than Subaltern men; they do not have proper representation and are not able to voice their opinion. Spivak's writings reflect the background of women's struggle and oppression in the third world countries.

What is Spivak known for

Considered one of the most influential postcolonial intellectuals, Spivak is best known for her essay Can the Subaltern Speak and for her translation of and introduction to Jacques Derrida's De la grammatologie.“The Subaltern cannot speak. There is no virtue in global laundry lists with women a pious. Representation has not withered away. The female intellectual has a circumscribe task that she must not disown with a flourish”(Spivak 1988, 308).Ranajit Guha

Ranajit Guha
Known for Pioneering the Subaltern Studies Group
Academic background
Alma mater Presidency College, Calcutta Calcutta University
Academic work


In "Can the Subaltern Speak", Spivak encourages but also criticizes the efforts of the subaltern studies group, a project led by Ranajit Guha that has reappropriated Gramsci's term "subaltern" (the economically dispossesed) in order to locate and re-establish a "voice" or collective locus of agency in postcolonial …

What is the postcolonial theory of Spivak : Spivak's concept of Worlding : Spivak rejects the idea that there is a precolonial past that we can recover. A nostalgia of lost origin, roots, and native culture is flawed project because there is no 'pure'precolonial past to recover ; it has been changed by colonialism.

What is Spivak’s critique of Deleuze : 7 Spivak, “Can the Subaltern Speak” Spivak argues that Deleuze and Foucault fail to acknowledge their historically privileged positions of articulation, and that consequently their philosophies and the conceptual toolbox they provide are irredeemably Eurocentric.

Why does Spivak say the subaltern cannot speak

She emphasizes that the subaltern women cannot speak as their voices and agencies were completely silenced under the political, social and cultural hegemony of Hindu patriarchal codes of moral conduct and their representation as victims of a barbaric culture in British colonial narratives.

That is to say, these subaltern women are inferior in rank as repressed by both the patriarchal socio-cultural situation as well as the colonial regime. They were disadvantaged not only of gender but also of race, social class, religion, caste, sexuality, and regional status.Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, in her influential essay, ”Can the Subaltern Speak ' argues that the abolition of the Hindu rite of sati in India by the British ”has been generally understood as a case of ”White men saving brown women from brown men''.

Is Ranajit Guha Marxist : In my student days at Presidency College, Calcutta, I became a Marxist, and a member of the Communist Party. In the late 1940s, I spent a considerable part of time in Europe involved in Communist Party work.