Summary of Spivak: "Can the Subaltern Speak? (Part 1-5)| Postcolonialism| Postcolonial Theory

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00:00:00 - 01:00:00

In this video, Spivak discusses how western intellectuals often inadvertently perpetuate the global division of labor by not being aware of their own privilege. She critiques the work of Foucault and Deluz for their lack of understanding of this phenomenon, and argues that the suburban can only speak in terms of the interests of the dominant group.

00:00:00 Spivak discusses how two western intellectuals interview a Chinese revolutionary, and how their own experiences as privileged Europeans often lead to them not being conscious of the global division of labor. She finds a problem with this, as it leads to the intellectuals representing the revolutionary in a way that is not unbiased.
00:05:00 The video discusses the work of philosopher Spivak, who argues that the suburbs can speak, but only if intellectuals assume responsibility for working with the suburbs. Spivak also discusses her earlier essay, in which she discusses how boban suari is still misrepresented by her own relatives.
00:10:00 In this lecture, Spivak critiques the Fuco de Luz interview, arguing that it preserves the subject of the Western intellectual without acknowledging the complicating factors coming from the developing world. She then discusses an interview by two great practitioners of the periphery, Foucault and Duluz, and argues that it allows for the tracing of a new subject of the West.
00:15:00 Spivak critiques Foucault and Deluz for their lack of understanding of the global division of labor, and for their depiction of the workers' struggle in France as a genuflection to the original Maoists. She argues that the theory of desire cannot be built without understanding ideology, and that the workers' struggle cannot be understood without a general theory of ideology.
00:20:00 Spivak discusses the importance of understanding class in order to understand the global division of labor, and argues that Marx's theory of class is important for understanding this phenomenon. She also discusses the idea of "radical practice," which should attend to the simultaneous occurrence of world trade and representation.
00:25:00 Spivak argues in part one of her essay that the intellectuals should not abdicate their role of representing the other of Europe, which includes the developing world and third world intellectuals. She uses the example of the French intellectuals' claims that representation has withered away, to make her case. In part two, she discusses how this new practice solidifies the subject of Europe, and discusses why it is necessary to challenge this creation.
00:30:00 Spivak discusses the importance of the colonial subject as other in order to maintain the colonial system. She discusses this concept in terms of Foucault's lectures on buried knowledge.
00:35:00 Spivak discusses the complex history of how the British codified Hindu law, and how this process of codification created an episteme of violence within colonial India. She also discusses how this violence is not applicable to all colonized areas, and how we should be careful not to take her insights too literally.
00:40:00 Spivak discusses how colonial subjects are created through the process of codification of Hindu law. She argues that the British treatment of widow immolation, called sati, is an example of how the colonial subject is created. She also points out that there is an ambivalence even in the sacred texts, and that the colonial subject is created through the process of codification of Hindu law as well as the creation of an "indian other" which can be reduced to a european audience.
00:45:00 Spivak argues that the suburban can speak, but only in terms of the interests of the dominant group. She provides a discussion of the suburban studies group, which is in between the dominant and subordinate groups. Their conclusions are closer to those of Marx than those of the "essentializing" writers of the suburban groups.
00:50:00 Spivak discusses the ways in which theorists such as Marx and Foucault analyze imperialism, and how these analyses often omit certain details about the history of imperialism. She then goes on to criticize Foucault for his tendency to see the "pure consciousness" of the subject as untouched by history.
00:55:00 In this video, philosopher and theorist Judith Butler discusses the colonial epistemology that underlies the "suburban studies" movement, which aims to read texts and groups of people through a materialistic lens in order to better understand them. She discusses how this colonial epistemology creates the "colonized other" as the other of Europe, and how it is done through not just education but also law. She also hints at how she will theorize the suburban itself in future work.

01:00:00 - 02:00:00

In this video, Masood Raja discusses the work of postcolonial theorist Gayatri Spivak. Spivak argues that Western scholars often approach non-Western cultures from a hegemonic perspective, which results in inaccurate and incomplete understandings of those cultures. She also argues that local and indigenous researchers have a more holistic and accurate perspective, but they are not always able to speak to mainstream academia.

01:00:00 In this lecture, Masood Raja discusses the significance of postcolonial theorist Jacques Derrida. He points out that, while Derrida does have important insights to offer into the deconstruction of Eurocentricity, Derridian scholarship is more significant in terms of its efforts to dismantle Eurocentrism itself.
01:05:00 Spivak argues that although postcolonial theorists should be committed to the idea that the subaltern can speak, nostalgia for lost origins can be detrimental to the exploration of social realities. She cites from Derrida's work to make her point. Derrida argues that the subaltern can speak, but that the text of grammar is not limited to the representation of language by the speaker. He also argues that the subaltern cannot be reduced to a universalizing abstraction, and that the privileging of any one prejudice over others results in the establishment of a Eurocentric perspective.
01:10:00 Spivak discusses the ways in which european subjects privilege written texts over other forms of communication, and argues that this privileging leads to the silencing of other cultures. She suggests that postcolonialism is the task of undoing these effects.
01:15:00 Spivak discusses the work of postcolonial theorists in relation to Pierre Mccarthy's idea of the "invisible reader." She then quotes Jacques Derrida, who argues that silence speaks louder than words. Postcolonial theorists must read between the lines to understand what the absent author may be saying. The work of postcolonial scholars is valuable, not only for its insights into the decay of the West, but also for its potential to help intellectuals become more interventionist.
01:20:00 In her fifth and final installment of her series on Gayatri Spivak's "Can the Subaltern Speak?", Masood Raja discusses Spivak's critique of Foucault and Deluge, which she argues presupposes the validity of the suburban subject's self-representation. Raja goes on to argue that this assumption, which is based on a false understanding of the division of labor and capitalism, has dangerous consequences for the academia of postcolonial studies.
01:25:00 In this video, philosopher Judith Butler discusses the question of whether or not the suburban can speak for himself or herself. She argues that, while derridian and terridaian ethical philosophy attempt to address this question, they ultimately fail because they do not take into account the otherness of the other. Butler then discusses Freud and British rule in India, showing how the subordination of women in the periphery is a product of colonialism and capitalism. She concludes the video by discussing suicide and how it is often dealt with in different ways in the first, third, and fourth worlds.
01:30:00 Spivak argues that Western scholars often approach non-Western cultures from a hegemonic perspective, which results in inaccurate and incomplete understandings of those cultures. She also argues that local and indigenous researchers have a more holistic and accurate perspective, but they are not always able to speak to mainstream academia.
01:35:00 Spivak discusses the way in which Freud uses women as a scapegoat in his essay, "A Child is Being Beaten." She argues that this uses women as a way to repress their desires and emotions, and that it is symptomatic of a larger, imperialistic ideology. In order to study this ideology, Spivak encourages readers to look at the ways in which Freud's ideas are symptomatic of a wider problem - the way in which he insists on making the woman the scapegoat. This can have dangerous consequences, as it allows the male psyche to remain unchallenged.
01:40:00 Spivak discusses the ways in which colonial subjectivity is produced, and how this produces a "sentence" like the one she has sketched. She references Freud's essay "The Interpretation of Dreams" to show how the process of psychoanalysis can be used to explore the subconscious mind. She then discusses how this sentence is produced within the context of colonial discourse, and how it is a product of the interaction between brown and white men.
01:45:00 Spivak discusses postcolonialism and postcolonial theory, focusing on the figure of the suburbanized postcolonial woman. She discusses how the colonizer's discourse of power legitimizes the practice of widow ascension, which then produces a heterogeneous, fractured narrative. She argues that the woman's voice cannot be heard in such a testimony, as it would be an ideal, transcendent ideology, and instead argues that the heterogeneous narrative of the sacrificed widows is evidence of the dialectical interlocking of white men and brown women.
01:50:00 Spivak argues that the figure of the woman is inscribed both in a civilizational mission to save native women and in a reformative Hindu context, which tells us how different discourses about the woman motivate different parties. She discusses an example of a johar performance, which is different from sati, and points out that a critic must be aware of both ends of the spectrum in order to understand the figure of the woman.
01:55:00 Spivak discusses the concept of "suburbans not being able to speak for themselves," and how this limits the task of postcolonial intellectuals. She points to Paulo Freire as a theorist who can help subalterns develop a voice of politics.

02:00:00 - 02:00:00

In this video, Spivak discusses the impossibility of the subaltern speaking, and how this is related to the role of the intellectual. She argues that the intellectual must continue to represent the subaltern in solidarity, even if they are not qualified to do so fully.