Ray Revisits Spivak for New Book

Professor Sangeeta Ray has published Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak: In Other Words from Wiley-Blackwell.

Joining Wiley-Blackwell's library of leading analyses on major literary theorists, Ray's new book explores the development of Spivak's criticism through "a nuanced examination of the main themes of her work." Ray reviews Spivak's position in feminist and postcolonial studies, and investigates Spivak's growing influence on the fields of ethnography, history, cultural studies and philosophy.

Spivak's work, and its resonance on criticism, are explored over four chapters: "Writing Autobiography, Writing Spivak: In Lieu Of An Introduction," "Reading Literature, Teaching Literature: Whither Soulmaking?" "Reading Singularity, Reading Difference: An Ethics of the Impossible," and "Reading Woman, Reading Essence: Whither Gender."

"This cannot be a book that simply explains Spivak, or a book that dilineates Spivak's various engagements with this or that theorist," writes Ray in the introduction. "It may be read as that. But I hope, instead, that the reader sees it is a book that offers a thinking through with Spivak the important questions about reading, pedagogy, ethics, and feminism."

Read more about Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, including extended excerpts, here.