Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty (1942–)

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Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty (1942–)

American literary critic and translator. Born Gayatri Chakravorty, Feb 24, 1942, in Calcutta, West Bengal, India; graduate of University of Calcutta with 1st class honors; Cornell University, MA in English; University of Iowa, PhD; m. Talbot Spivak (an American, div.).

Foremost post-colonial theorist and pioneer in subaltern studies, came to prominence with her translation of, and introduction to, Jacques Derrida's Of Grammatology (1974); taught at University of Iowa; became an Avalon Foundation professor at Columbia; other works include Myself Must I Remake: The Life and Poetry of W. B. Yeats (1974), In Other Worlds: Essays in Cultural Politics (1987), The Post-Colonial Critic: Interviews, Strategies, Dialogues (1990), Outside in the Teaching Machine (1993) and The Spivak Reader (1996); with Ranajit Guha, edited Selected Subaltern Studies (1988).