Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (gaĕ͜ot̪ːɾi tʃɔ̜kːɾo.boɾ.(t̪)t̪i) (; born 24 February 1942) is an Indian scholar, literary theorist, and feminist critic. She is a University Professor at Columbia University and a founding member of the establishment's Institute for Comparative Literature and Society.

Considered as one of the most influential postcolonial intellectuals, Spivak is best known for her essay "Can the Subaltern Speak?" and her translation of and introduction to Jacques Derrida's ''De la grammatologie''. She has also translated many works of Mahasweta Devi into English, with separate critical notes on Devi's life and writing style, notably ''Imaginary Maps'' and ''Breast Stories.''

Spivak was awarded the 2012 Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy for being "a critical theorist and educator speaking for the humanities against intellectual colonialism in relation to the globalized world." In 2013, she received the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian award given by the Republic of India. In 2025, Spivak received the Holberg Prize for "her groundbreaking work in the fields of literary theory and philosophy", per the selection committee.

Although associated with postcolonialism, Spivak confirmed her separation from the discipline in her book ''A Critique of Postcolonial Reason'' (1999), a position she maintains in a 2021 essay titled "How the Heritage of Postcolonial Studies Thinks Colonialism Today", published by ''Janus Unbound: Journal of Critical Studies''. Provided by Wikipedia