What does Spivak mean by “epistemic violence” in her paper “can the subaltern speak”?

History

What is Spivak saying in Can the Subaltern Speak?

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, in her influential essay, ”Can the Subaltern Speak? ‘ argues that the abolition of the Hindu rite of sati in India by the British ”has been generally understood as a case of ”White men saving brown women from brown men”.

What is the main problem with Gayatri Spivak’s view of the subaltern?

A critical analysis of Spivak’s classic 1988 postcolonial studies essay, in which she argues that a core problem for the poorest and most marginalized in society (the subalterns) is that they have no platform to express their concerns and no voice to affect policy debates or demand a fairer share of society’s goods.

What’s the essay can the subaltern speak all about?

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s original essay “Can the Subaltern Speak?” transformed the analysis of colonialism through an eloquent and uncompromising argument that affirmed the contemporary relevance of Marxism while using deconstructionist methods to explore the international division of labor and capitalism’s ”

What is Spivak’s subaltern theory?

Spivak asserts that the subaltern subject is heterogeneous and, by examining the mechanisms of the supposed ‘recovery’ of their voice, instead an ongoing displacement and effacement is revealed. The key subject position disentangled by Spivak is that of the female subaltern and the practice of sati or widow immolation.
 

What is epistemic violence according to Spivak?

epistemic violence is to damage a given group’s ability to speak and be heard. Because of Spivak’s work and the work of other philosophers, the reality that. members of oppressed groups can be silenced by virtue of group membership is. widely recognized.

What does it mean that the subaltern Cannot speak?

Spivak concludes that “the subaltern cannot speak’ when they are spoken for by those in positions of power, specifically people who lack the access to listen to the ones they are speaking for.
 

Can the Subaltern actually speak?

For the ‘true’ subaltern group, whose identity is its difference, there is no unrepresentable subaltern subject that can know and speak itself; the intellectual’s solution is not to abstain from representation.

Who does Spivak refer to through her term subaltern?

Gayatri Spivak defined subaltern in the following words: “Subaltern is not just a classy word for ‘oppressed’, for the other, for somebody who’s not getting a piece of the pie…. In post-colonial terms, everything that has limited or no access to the cultural imperialism is subaltern-a space of difference.
 

Can the Subaltern Speak gender?

the Subaltern Speak? ‘ (1988), Gayatri C. Spivak asks: “Can the subaltern (as woman) speak?” She adds that “the subaltern as female cannot be heard or read” (308). She concludes that “the subaltern cannot speak” (308).



Who does Spivak refer to through subaltern?

Fundamental to Spivak’s theory is the concept of Subaltern. The ‘Subaltern’ is a military term which means ‘of lower rank’. She borrowed this term from Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci.
 

What according to Spivak is Worlding?

Spivak believes that the study of imperialism and its influences on British literature can help explain the “worlding” of Third World countries – essentially understanding the formation of this “other” as seen through discourse influenced by a colonizing history.
 

Can the Subaltern actually speak?

For the ‘true’ subaltern group, whose identity is its difference, there is no unrepresentable subaltern subject that can know and speak itself; the intellectual’s solution is not to abstain from representation.

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