Jon from Long Sunday is planning an innovative cross-blog discussion of Gayatri Spivak's work for the week of April 17-23.
It's an open call, and I want to extend the invitation especially to readers and fellow bloggers interested in postcolonial literature & theory, feminism, and South Asian politics and culture. The current participants are mainly "theorists" (and theoretical anti-theorists like our friend John Holbo), and it seems like it would be important to have some input from people who have some of the thematic interests I mentioned in the mix as well. Spivak means something different if your interest is tribal/aboriginal rights in Bihar or the Uniform Civil Code, rather than the Labor Theory of Value... if you know what I mean.
Several major Spivak essays are being made available online for the event (go to Jon's site), which are to form the core of the discussion. But I suspect any encounters with Spivak (positive or negative) would only enliven this unusual event.
Note:: If there are any readers who don't have their own blogs, I am always happy to volunteer my own blog space as a venue for guest posts. Please email me if you'd like to participate that way -- all you'll have to do is send me your work via email and tell me how you'd like it presented. (From correspondence I've gotten in recent months and various encounters at conferences, I know there are a significant number of academic readers lurking out there... )
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For my own take on Spivak, hm. I referenced her concept of 'catachresis' positively in a post on Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake from some time ago. But I've also hinted strongly at my frustration with Spivak's style of writing and intellectual idiosyncrasies in this long post from last summer.
I think it might be time to try some new approaches and say some new things: I'm hoping to write a post called "Spivak in Plain English" for the event. Stay tuned!