Feminism and Critical Theory-- Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

Bharathiar University MPhil (English) Study Materials -- PAPER II – APPROACHES TO LITERATURE

Unit V

Gayatri Chakravorti Spivak (Lodge & Wood, pp. 493 -509)

Feminism and Critical Theory

Gayatri  Chakravorty  Spivak

[This is a simplified version of the original]

Dear Scholar, 

In this blogspot, you get another detailed summary of the same essay. but as many students requested a simplified version of the same, I am publishing this summary. This summary will be more useful from the examination point of view. 

Introduction

Gayatri  Chakravorty  Spivak is the translator of Jacques Derrida’s De la Grammatologie (Of Grammatology)  [notes -1].  She introduced deconstructive critical strategies into cultural studies, especially feminism. [notes-2]. Deconstruction underlines the inherent capacity of the language to suggest ‘supplementary’ or excess semantic associations. [notes 3].

SPIVAK— Feminism and Critical Theory

SPIVAK— Feminism and Critical Theory

[Lecture notes by Dr. S. Sree Kumar]

As the translator of Jacques Derrida’s De la Grammatologie (as Of Grammatology) she helped to introduce deconstructive critical strategies not only into literary criticism but also into wider cultural analysis. 

    Spivak’s introduction to the translation provides one of the most cogent (convincing, logical) accounts of deconstruction’s potential political agenda = the emphasis placed on deconstruction’s capacity to unmake apparently agreed ‘truths’ (good / evil, God / devil, man / woman—unmaking binaries, privileged term trying to displace the other—process continuing—trace) by reference to their ultimate derivation from linguistic structures alone.

     Our confidence in finite (limited, restricted, fixed, predetermined) meanings can be sustained (continued, examples like ‘meaning’, ‘cat’) only if we ignore the constant capacity of the language to suggest ‘supplementary’ or excess semantic associations.

      Spivak’s allegiance [loyalty, commitment, faithfulness] to the above perceptions is at best preliminary. She believed that the persistent deferral of meaning [difference, differance] will not of itself ensure a more liberal sexual politics or the dismantling of sexist socio-political structures.