Readings

The postcolonial moment has passed, but the need to locate and confront shifting forms of oppression remains imperative. For Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, such a task should be activated through long-term practice in the ethics of reading. In Readings, Spivak elaborates a utopian vision: imaginative training for epistemological performance, to develop a will for peaceful social justice in coming generations. Teaching as she reads, she demonstrates modes in which such a vision...
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The postcolonial moment has passed, but the need to locate and confront shifting forms of oppression remains imperative. For Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, such a task should be activated through long-term practice in the ethics of reading. In Readings, Spivak elaborates a utopian vision: imaginative training for epistemological performance, to develop a will for peaceful social justice in coming generations. Teaching as she reads, she demonstrates modes in which such a vision might be apprehended. She celebrates Frantz Fanon’s appropriation of Hegel. Preparing herself to read, she pays close attention to signposts of character, action and place in J. M. Coetzee’s Summertime and Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South. Re-reading two of her own essays, she addresses changes in her thinking and practice over the course of her career. Now, in her fifth decade of teaching, Spivak passes on her lessons through anecdote, interpretation, warning and instruction, to students and teachers of literature. She writes, ‘I urge students of English to understand that utopia does not happen, and yet to understand, also, their importance to the nation and the world. Indeed, I know how hard it is to sustain such a spirit in the midst of a hostile polity, but I urge the students to consider the challenge.’