Spivakian Sensibilities - I

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, as we all know, is one of the world's foremost literary theorists today. And that would be enough to sum up her profile in toto!

Well, although my tryst with Spivak started with her high-renowned and hugely impactful essay, “Can the Subaltern Speak?” my admiration for Spivak came about only when I read quite a complicating text of hers, as part of my doctoral research.

It’s titled, A Critique of Postcolonial Reason: Toward A History of The Vanishing Present, with around 450 pages to its magnificence.

It’s so so profound a critique of transnational globalization, and she begins by charting her way from colonial discourse studies to transnational cultural studies in such a scholarly way!

Although the book is by far  the clearest statement ever, to date, of Spivak's own relationship to postcolonial theory, well, reading through even a page of the Critique of Postcolonial Reason, I must admit was a herculean challenge of sorts.

To take Oliver Goldsmith to my rescue and tweaking his much-fancied lines a little, I should confess that, while ploughing my way through each paragraph of this highly nuanced, yet delightful read, it was that, ‘the more I gazed, the more my wonder grew!’

Yes! I tried yet again, this time with a cuppa in hand, to read: on the lines, through the lines, above the lines, under the lines, into the lines, but I still felt a huge void in my reading tactic, or rather, reading strategy, of Spivak’s mind-boggling sensibilities put up on a platter in this wonderful book on a Critique of Postcolonial Reason!

How true was Ruskin! How impactful are his grand and mighty lines contained within ‘Sesame and Lilies’! It so reminds you of Spivak!

Indeed, to Ruskin,

All the higher circles of human intelligence are, to those beneath, only momentarily and partially open.

We may, by good fortune, obtain a glimpse of a great poet, and hear the sound of his voice; We may, by good fortune, obtain a glimpse of a great poet, and hear the sound of his voice;  or snatch, once or twice in our lives, the privilege of throwing a bouquet in the path of a Princess!

_And yet these momentary chances we covet; and spend our years, and passions, and powers in pursuit of little more than these! There is a society continually open to us, of people who will talk to us as long as we like,—talk to us in the best words they can choose, and of the things nearest their hearts._ And this society, because it is so numerous and so gentle, and can be kept waiting round us all day long,—kings and statesmen lingering patiently, not to grant audience, but to gain it!

How trueee!

Well, it’s so complicating for anyone who hasn’t learnt the art of ‘crawling before walking’ on Spivak!

As simple as that!

And yes, I had to master a ‘toddler’s crawl’ on Spivak, before I could even attempt ‘walking’ my way on her!

And, it took me almost a year to come to grips with what she was trying to tell us through this marvel-read, from her enthralling theoretical garden!

But what an ‘enhancement of enlightenment’ it was! What indescribable lustre! What radiating aura!

@ Assam

To put it in a nutshell, never have we seen a lady or a man, a theoretician or a critic, a westerner or an easterner, give us this profound a take on transnational cultural studies, on transnational globalization, on the local details of emergent agency in an international frame, on the responsible role for the postcolonial critic within the postcolonial enclave, in this, her first and fullest treatment on the vast expanse of postcolonial studies.

This book royally paved my way to the world and the oeuvre of Spivak.

Ever since, I’ve been a crazy (‘fan’)atic of Spivak, and have grabbed every chance that comes my way to listen to her lecture, to admire the way she effortlessly puts forth her thoughts, through a fine and nuanced theoretical framework! Well, those hours of rapturous enthrallment, of listening live to Spivak, are indeed vimoksha to a devotee!

To be contd…

Image 1: flickrdotcom
Image 2: Rufus [this blogger] ;-)