Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak is best known for her formative contribution to postcolonial theory. Spivak's critical work also includes numerous articles, books, interviews and translations on topics ranging from poststructuralist thought and literary criticism; continental philosophy; feminist theory; Marxism and post-Marxism; to the plight of disempowered “subaltern” peoples who are excluded from political representation in postcolonial nation states such as India and Bangladesh; the international division of labour; the limitations of universal human rights discourses and international development policies; as well as readings and translations of nineteenth and twentieth-century literature.
Spivak's reputation as a postcolonial theorist is due in part to her persistent criticism of European literary and philosophical texts for providing ideological support for European colonialism in essay collections like In Other Worlds (1988) and Outside in the Teaching Machine (1993), and books like A...
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Citation: Morton, Stephen. "Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 10 May 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5906, accessed 09 June 2026.]
