Gayatri Spivak: The Trajectory of the Subaltern in My Work

Columbia University Professor Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, is one of the leading literary theorists and cultural critics of our times. She takes issue with Western intellectuals' account of their inability to mediate the historical experience of the working classes and the underprivileged of society. [9/2004] [Show ID: 8840]
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[@diegoandrade3820]

Now, this is a Diva! The subaltern studies are my basis to explore Brazilian literature. Thanks Spivak!

[@ghazalshaikh6887]

We do the same with Pakistani literature

[@p.madhanmadhan4881]

@@ghazalshaikh6887 which sections of society in Pakistan constitute Subalterns, could you please tell me

[@sanmarcosnewslive]

love the Gramsci reference we are so Blessed she is on the planet

[@ricardoduchesne2205]

Rather funny and disingenuous for Spivak to exhibit herself as a prideful Indian in full attire, all the while teaching and collecting a huge salary in a White-created university, Columbia University, always condemning White-created countries, while India is still the most racist, caste organized country in the world.

[@marychristy5439]

How does wearing her normal clothes make her "prideful"? Are you sure you know what "disingenuous" means? And how is saying that subaltern people or cultures have the right to speak for themselves the same thing as criticizing white people? Saying that nonwhite people should have a voice does not mean that white people should not have a voice. The U.S., by the way, was not created by only white people. Native Americans were doing just fine before Europeans showed up, and the country as we know it now, would be much different without the slaves forced to come here from Africa and the Caribbean.

[@rubiaakram715]

Mary! impressive

[@ABhattacharya]

@@ricardoduchesne2205 India is racist and has a social hierarchy which is very asymmetrical. It can be extremely challenging for the lower rungs to make the cut. The superlatives of "the most racist.." I am not sure. Having lived in white, western spaces also, I realize racism and white supremacy are the foundations those nations...though brown people sometimes make the cut. I agree with your criticism of India, not sure if the superlative is fitting.

[@tonneyodhiambo6482]

The Subaltern must rise to speak for, and on their own behalf. I like the argument

[@nuri2318]

@ They will start their discourse. Power is exercised through generation of a certain body of knowledge. And for a long time this agency of generating knowledge and discourse has been consolidated in the hands of elite in all forms. So in hindu society the Brahman caste in colonial context the colonisers. They spoke and defined the world with them as center and others in relation to them. The fault lies in this metanarrative or universality of their claims which when circulated were accepted and internalised not just by the oppressors and elite of the given system but also by the victims or subalterns within that system. All that changes when the subaltern is given a chance to start her discourse. Spoken word has such power see semiotics. Our whole reality is textual, based on language. See Bible God said let their be light and there was. Now I'm not a Christian but I'm using it as a metaphor to explain the power of spoken word. Anyhow gayatri or others are not subaltern in themselves. They're speaking about and for subaltern but they aren't one themselves. The true subaltern won't have such literary and canonical power that writing and documentation gives but their culture is in their orality. Oral literature and language in that sense becomes the carrier of their culture. Their idioms represent a special way of thinking. So all in all subalterns speaking for themselves is a beginning of a new discourse which will alter reality as we know it and also socio- power relations.

[@nuri2318]

@@asmanaureen9874 I believe that that won't be the likely case. Because almost every system we have in existence has two elements one the rulers or the elitist within it and the ruled or lower members within it. The equilibrium is maintained between these two groups when they both adhere to the norms and expected roles that they have been assigned by the system. So the rulers behaving like ruled is peculiar and discouraged and ruled trying to achieve the status of ruler is punished or penalised. See in patriarchy or in capitalism or within a religious community everywhere. So when the subaltern escape the burden of its relational and oppressed position it is likely to fall on someone else. When we started thinking about women rights, black women started their mission and womanism came, and in India people understood the difference between women of elite class and caste and lower castes. Also with time power equation changes. For ex french replaced African languages during colonial period and under nazi Germany's influence french was replaced by german in some places.

[@cristianmota2765]

Muito bom!!!! Ela é a melhor!!! Muito ver que os estudos sobre a subalternidade são levados a sério!... #ORGULHO

[@nirmalpandya5985]

She reflects On individuality in the contemporary age in a great way.

[@nickcollard2609]

Brilliant talk, one of my favorites

[@ryanjavierortega8513]

Fantastic Lecture. Dr. Spivak is incredible and the accusations regarding her Work being unnecessarily difficult are, to me, now as always, odd - Professor Spivak's language is perfectly lucid and the great effort she takes with her references and citations make the reading of her work a joy. The best thing I've found in any work of Derrida's is her Introduction to 'Of Grammatology.'

[@dustbny5497]

Its because she evades critique, she uses middle class bengalis, but they are upper caste, with a lot of social capital. the use of middle class obscures her location within the structure of indian society where she does her "field work." She's not middle class on any scale. Her caste oppresses lowercaste people, and with a voice and clout as large as hers', the obscuring of her social location is weird cause she talks about learning from the subaltern, and 'radical alterity.' Which are all sound in concept but she rarely practices it, shes' very defensive when critiqued. That is still fine, but what she does is evades this critique and reformulates her position with the critique in mind and hence erasing the critique. The first 10 mins of her lack of grace is her dancing around this critique. Subaltern studies and her also partly by association got critiqued on not taking into account the structure of Caste and had to stop using the term subaltern.

[@joaobrandjr]

Que palestra maravilhosa ! Que pensadora completa ! Como não admirá-la? Trazendo todos os pontos de ligações entre as várias fases do conhecimento cientifico e o processo cultural da compreensão da fala crítica . Que PHODONA !!!!!

[@djbutt63]

I think it's interesting that speakers who talks about the world as if their experience of it was the same as all of us, without making any reference to anyone else's work, will be acceptable to those who find Spivak's heavily citational style "egoistic"because she references her own work and the debates she's active in. This talk is probably tricky for anyone who hasn't read the works being referenced, but is a great gift for those of us tracking the trajectory of her work.

[@dustbny5497]

Yup Yup, great entertainment for us also.

[@sanmarcosnewslive]

what an awesome sense of humor!!!!!

[@marysiever]

This was a terrific talk. Thank you, Dr. Spivak.

[@koolword7477]

What an absolute genius

[@iglooo102videos]

US computer scientist, Indian literary critic, Japanese biologist win Kyoto Prize. Gayatri Chakrovoty Spivak , an Indian literary critic and professor at Columbia University, won the arts and philosophy prize.

[@SREEKUMARPNSREE]

excellent.... Gayathri...at her best...

[@angilodomingosmendes1991]

I have an essay to do so this interview gives me the tolls I need.

[@Phoenixbird27]

Thanks UCtelevision for posting! Do you know if this lecture was published anywhere?

[@santhoshmypathi3061]

Great indegenious thought

[@arockiasamy249]

happy to listen to you...

[@Cyberphunkisms]

where can i find the transcript for this?

[@llariru2150]

incredible intellectuel... juste 40 page of the subaltern article is, once read, unforgettable.

[@rubyredshoes77]

Thanks for this-it is really useful for my essay.

[@chellarajan6837]

I acknowledge Spivak’s point that the popular and subalterns are not synonyms or necessarily linked ideas because the former invokes a certain generalized universality that masks the power/knowledge formation of the latter. Nevertheless, I prefer the term people in the sense of demos as mob rather than the plethos or undifferentiated mass or extension, because it identifies itself as agency, with latent or expressed political power,

[@FilezillaDownload]

Great lecture.

[@fredleept]

Minor point: it was Zhou Enlai, not Ho Chi Min who said that (about 1968, not 1789) @ 1:13:45

[@languagefreeassangeteacher5338]

Dear Gayatri Spivak, I have always had the feeling that you defend freedom and that you support those in need. Today I would like to ask you to say some sentences in public demanding the release of Julian Assange. Assange has been fighting for free information and bringing war crimes to the eyes of the public. He is a journalist and helps all of us the understand what´s going on. Thus reducing wars and the possibilities of successful `war lies´. Thank you for your understanding and all the best. Michael Haas

[@supersamzman1]

@ewanthesis Thank you, thank you, thank you.

[@MrSpanky87]

I'm very green re Subaltern studies - I'm constantly coming across the word 'Subject' for instance in the phrase 'Subject formation exceeds the borders of the intending Subect'. What is meant exactly by the word subject? Very basically I understand it to be an ideological group/political entity that can influence/be influenced? I'd really really appreciate help on this.

[@englishlive9388]

I am also not so much an expert in theory..... Yet let me try to reflect on this statement.... Let us take ,for instance, a child. The child is first of all a human animal. Then the child can be a boy or a girl or some other category. Then this child can be a son or a daughter or an orphan or something else. Thus it goes on..... All these ( boy, girl, orphan, son etc.) can be called identities. Identity is how the being/thing assumes itself as its self. Then let us take the idea of subjectivity. It is associated with action or actions ( both as presence and as absence) When one speak about the identity of a citizen or the subjectivity of a citizen, the difference is in the nuance. The identity is really a membership, where as subjectivity is the activity or absence or limits of the activity brought about on the being/thing because of the identity or identities or lack of it or them. Now let us think about your ststement ' Subject formation exceeds the borders of the intending subject'. First, let us take the subjectivity of a teacher or a student or a citizen etc. Of course these different terms mean identity when they merely mean membership in a group. But here we take these terms not merely as a membership but also as words of actions, of privilages or lack of privilages etc. Hence these terms here becomes terms showing subjectivity. So what is meant by 'intending subject' in your quotation is the generally expected image or the average attributes associated with these subjects ( like teacher , student, citizen ) . The next phrase to take up in your quotation is 'subject formation.' No child is a born Student. No man is a born teacher. One is formed to become a student or teacher. This process of becoming a subject is the formation of the subject. There is a process for one to become any of these subjects be it a citizen, boy, girl, orphan , mother, father, priest, stranger etc. , Now these subjectivities may not always be exclusive of one another. It is possible to assume an ideal context where one can perform ones subjectivities perfectly well both as a son and a student. But it is understandable that the borders that surrounds these different subjectivities do not fall perfectly well upon one another. Hence the statement ' Subject formation exceeds the borders of intending subject' This is my explanation. I am not sure how far I am correct or clear. Besides I didn't know the text ( as Gayatri Spivak responded to one of the questions in the video) from where you have taken this statement.

[@debatoshray1542]

I am firstly seeing her through my eyes on KZbin.

[@ghatshilagogol]

It is an apocryphal story about Zhou Enlai and not Ho Chi Minh that `it was too early to say' pace 1789. Could have even been talking about the 1968 events according to some

[@januarydaphnemanosca1501]

Do you have any copy of Strategies of viligance an interview with her? I really really needed it now.

[@abiehakhawaja]

very helpful

[@golamsarowar2955]

Nice

[@BrassicaRappa]

Begins at 5:14

[@DS-tz4lk]

✊🏽❤️✌🏽

[@dnyandevmore6647]

Gayatri's Can the subaltern Speak is introduced in the syallabi of our Universiyt

[@elroquero99]

Is there a way to get the transcription of this conference? I´m trying to subtitle it to spanish, but it´s very difficult with only hearing it (i´m a native spanish speaker)

[@siddharthashanker9512]

She is genius.

[@subratabiswas14]

Proud to be a Bengali 😍😍🙏🙏

[@VG-bf9cy]

The communists of Bengal have destroyed the country and state and also the world. Nothing to be proud of these communists

[@hookalakah]

"Suicidal resistance is a message inscribed on the body when no other means will get through. …It is a response…to the state terrorism practiced outside of its own ambit by the United States and in the Palestinian case additionally to an absolute failure of hospitality." --Gayatri Spivak at Columbia University, June 2002 "The language of non-thought." --Lionel Trilling

[@hughmac13]

And with whom do you agree?

[@lawsonj39]

@@hughmac13 It's unclear that there's a contradiction between the Spivak and Trilling quotes: depends on how you interpret the relationship between them.

[@cuddlesducks]

bengali on platform

[@oreos888]

Honestly I assumed she was married to Michael Spivak for the longest time lololol

[@hrshield1626]

Same

[@dnyandevmore6647]

Excellent deliberation on subaltern madam. I am teaching the same paper in our college at PG level. From Dr D N More People's College, Nanded Maharashtra India

[@shackleton12]

A poor first year here. I think I understand the video, but not your comments. Does this mean: a) My humour chip is faulty. b) I don't understand the talk. or c) You're talking about something completely different?

[@srishtibarua7427]

This is what Bengalis are capable of doing! She's an excellent example of Bengali intellect.Honoured to be a fellow Bengali.

[@srishtibarua7427]

@@vals4207 no,but surely someone who understands her critical thinking and theories.That's why we study her in literature.

[@alphadog6970]

Her calculus book is great 👍

[@ujan9837]

you must be kidding me dude 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣As someone who's aware of both the spivaks, man, you're today's winner.

[@alphadog6970]

@@ujan9837 to be honest i dont remember making this comment.🫣 I need to watch the video again

[@raynaharris]

what does she says at min 0:13:30- 0:12:48... Bhabha ?? culture ??? governance...?? que dice en min 0:13:30- 0:12:48

[@Iamnotasuit]

I think that Spivak is at a point where she can effectually cite herself on the issue of Post-Colonial Theory. As to her being an intellectual fraud, you do realize that she was the first person to translate "Of Grammatology" into English. Oh, and that most of her lecture is based on derridian concepts that "no normally intelligent person" would immediately recognize. Because, you know, expecting some base-level understanding of the ideas behind the lecture would be just ridiculous.

[@prerna22munshi]

Hippo Potamus Moreover, with just 20 minutes or so into the video, I see her invalidating the criticisms only. Where are her arguments! With such an unpalatable vocab, you really cover up your actual knowledge of subalterns.

[@dustbny5497]

All she does is hypothesizing then waiting for other scholars to do the leg work that she does not want to do. she wrote her work on subaltern before reading Gramsci and before reading the subaltern studies, then reads, alters, corrects and redirects. And when the use of 'subaltern' was critiqued she is feeling the need to give the context of her essay and then reabstracting a new definition of the word.

[@deviantvc]

Isn't that a good thing? Correcting oneself?

[@jacthanni]

1:20:06

[@higher7000]

That is an incidental remark; not the main argument I'm making.

[@aguilapulpo]

19:55 agency as institutional validations... - reproductive heteronormativity as the broadest global institution

[@youssefaithamadouaissa2216]

Subalterns are historically muted.

[@jacthanni]

9:34

[@borrogove]

A mind that comes from Indian caste oriented mentality

[@monke2251]

A mind that cannot perceive knowledge without attaching an prejudice to it

[@kaushalskaloo]

17:26 Terry Eagleton😂

[@kyivstuff]

5:15

[@tabimauz]

It is so hard to understand her.

[@akhileshze]

Upanishad are more precise and strikingly clear.

[@fredleept]

Bacon is an indigenous theorist @ 1:05:33. SMH.

[@nativesun7661]

Fred Lee you know damn well she was making a separate point using Bacon (in the context of HIS time) to illustrate it. Stop.

[@pumpkinbukipie]

ha! that "can the subaltern speak" is not influential on subaltern studies...that's modest! it is the often the most contact a North American graduate student will make with subaltern studies (unless they choose to poke around a little more) in most Humanities fields!

[@archivol4069]

Z

[@jashfafsjhakjfhafkjh8551]

i wish she could be less turgid and less needlessly complex with her words

[@gabriellecondon4040]

It's mind boggling how many tangents she goes off on while saying one thing, it is a zig-zag, looping, rollercoasting mad path to what she wants to say.

[@nitinbhasin8898]

While acceptance of the need to review scholarly yardsticks is appreciated, why should the Marxist theories and his ideas (be it redefined) about secularism and state should be the yardstick to measure society? As Spivak is arguing there is much more than European imagination of state, religion, moral values and binary truth in the world. Why are they considered incapable of defining the appropriate moral ethos?

[@fidanzaapprodite8527]

Why is a Baman talking about Subaltern studies? Who gave her the right?

[@anandsengar6602]

Below arvg iq then my room temp

[@higher7000]

Since when did Derrida become an authority on "subaltern studies"? One can use his approach (against which most post 1970 non-US academics have their reservations) but he cannot be cited to support factual issues (if Derrida knew "facts" mattered in the first place). One can, for eg., indulge in a Marxist-style critique of folk dance, but that doesn't mean one can cite Marx as an authority on dance. Also, I have nothing against substance (Hegel's great) only against the pretence to substance.

[@ninadism]

please do not compare her with arundhati roy. roy is fluff.

[@dustbny5497]

That's the point?

[@sp_liberated]

Roy is an activist/author. What’s the relation?

[@vish2ual]

She uses too much of jargon!!! Lectures must be easily comprehensible!!! It should be done in easily communicable language with broader understanding and build an individual's knowledge

[@sivawright]

This is not a lecture. This is a keynote address meant for academics. Not students.

[@dustbny5497]

@@sivawright accurate use of the word 'academic.'

[@vimsageer7537]

Call me a dumbass... Am I alone feeling there is a lack of fluidity?

[@deviantvc]

what fluidity are u talkn abt?

[@CanaryAlien]

The politics of translation brought me here. She strikes me as a tremendous fraud.

[@sann2338]

Is she an egoist?

[@westchesterny]

LOL--- "post-colonialism" they make it seem like just a code word for non-white. Surely, the American students (99% saxon at the revolution) feel totally "alienated" by the issues of the other ethnic populations, who are their "teachers" (but who are teaching only about their own colonizations that they are doing, by being the speakers FOR those foreign students, lol). It's hard to say if it's just dishonest, or hopelessly myopic and people are really that unsophisticated, or what, lol

[@vishikha.tripathi]

damnn seven damn years ago eh? hope time has done wonders for your understanding and you are doing better since you were OBVIOUSLY in an incredibly dark place while writing this comment you must have been for it takes great grief for an average man to be this, uh, difficult

[@enioni716]

Seems glorified subject, not producing anything concrete for a society.

[@jemandoondame2581]

41:20