Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak has distinguished herself as one of the foremost scholars of contemporary literary and postcolonial theory and feminist thought. Known for her translation of Derrida's On Grammatology and her groundbreaking essay, "Can the Subaltern Speak?," Spivak has often focused on subaltern, marginalized women and the role of essentialism in feminist thought to unite women from divergent cultural backgrounds. In Nationalism and the Imagination, Spivak expands upon her previous postcolonial scholarship, employing a cultural lens to examine the rhetorical underpinnings of the idea of the nation-state. In this gripping and intellectually rigorous work, Spivak specifically analyzes the creation of Indian sovereignty in 1947 and the tone of Indian nationalism, bound up with class and religion, that arose in its wake. Spivak was five years old when independence was declared, and she vividly writes: "These are my earliest memories: Famine and blood on the streets." As well, she recollects the songs and folklore stories that were prevalent at the time in order to examine the role of the mother tongue and the relationship between language and feelings of national identity. She concludes that nationalism colludes with the private sphere of the imagination in order to command the public sphere. Originally given as an address at the University of Sofia in Bulgaria, Nationalism and the Imagination provides powerful insight into the historical narrative of India as well as compelling ideas that speak to nationalist concerns around the world. Also included in this book is the discussion with Spivak that followed the speech, making this an essential and informative work for scholars of post-colonialism.
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Nationalism and the Imagination
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak has distinguished herself as one of the foremost scholars of contemporary literary and postcolonial theory and feminist thought. Known for her translation of Derrida's On Grammatology and her groundbreaking essay, "Can the Subaltern Speak?," Spivak has often focused on subaltern, marginalized women and the role of essentialism in feminist thought to unite women from divergent cultural backgrounds. In Nationalism and the Imagination, Spivak expands upon her previous postcolonial scholarship, employing a cultural lens to examine the rhetorical underpinnings of the idea of the nation-state. In this gripping and intellectually rigorous work, Spivak specifically analyzes the creation of Indian sovereignty in 1947 and the tone of Indian nationalism, bound up with class and religion, that arose in its wake. Spivak was five years old when independence was declared, and she vividly writes: "These are my earliest memories: Famine and blood on the streets." As well, she recollects the songs and folklore stories that were prevalent at the time in order to examine the role of the mother tongue and the relationship between language and feelings of national identity. She concludes that nationalism colludes with the private sphere of the imagination in order to command the public sphere. Originally given as an address at the University of Sofia in Bulgaria, Nationalism and the Imagination provides powerful insight into the historical narrative of India as well as compelling ideas that speak to nationalist concerns around the world. Also included in this book is the discussion with Spivak that followed the speech, making this an essential and informative work for scholars of post-colonialism.
Popular Reviews(1)
Reviewed by Apfelfrikadelle Ein sehr anregender Vortrag, von dem ich wenig verstanden habe. What seems relatively clear to me at this point is that Spivak challenges nationalism as something co-constitutive of the nation-state. Rather, nations are themselves invented as imaginary narratives, historically rooted in reproductive heteronormativity. To lose sight of this founding act of imagination is to obscure the unjust and oppressive mechanisms, such as heteronormativity, that have shaped the very process of nation-building. Against the unimaginative institutionalization of the nation-state, Spivak proposes a re-reading of nationalism that de-transcendentalizes the nation. In doing so, the national project is reopened to its own imaginative and narrative character. In a globalized world, this requires placing national narratives in conversation with other narratives rather than treating them as self-evident. This, I think, is where Spivak's emphasis on the Humanities (particularly Comparative Literature) comes into play. These disciplines cultivate the capacity to read, compare, and negotiate the diverse narratives through which the world is imagined and organized. Spivak also insists on the distinction between equality and equivalence. My impression is that equivalence points to a more subtle way of thinking about the relation between different imaginative narratives of nationhood, without simply reducing them to the same standard. However, I did not fully grasp this point (or many of the others!!!) and I suspect I am missing important nuances.