A Potential Subalternist? Reading Spivak Reading Foucault
Date Issued
2015
Date
2015
Author(s)
Lin, Chia-Ming
Abstract
This thesis investigates Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak''s shifting critical positions on Michel Foucault and the applicability of Foucauldian theories to notions of the subaltern in an effort to respond to Spivak''s critiques of Foucault and to assess Foucault as a potential subalternist. Chapter One discusses definitions of the subaltern and subalternity, tracks the development of Subaltern Studies critical projects including Spivak''s post-structural turn, and provides a summary of Spivak''s critique of Foucault in ""Can the Subaltern Speak?"" Chapter Two responses to Spivak''s insights about Foucault''s ignorance of colonialism and his wishful Orientalism, her evaluation of Foucault''s complicity with Western interests and of his desire to be neutral or transparent, and her estimation of Foucault in relation to the (new) subaltern interests. Through those assessments, this thesis contends that what can be called Foucault''s archaeology of the West implicitly aligns with subaltern interests. Chapter Three investigates Spivak''s more recent positions on Foucault after ""Can the Subaltern Speak?""—including the revised version of ""Can the Subaltern Speak?"" as it appears in the ""History"" chapter of A Critique of Postcolonial Reason—to address issues including the new international division of labor, foreign domestic workers, and the new subaltern. Chapter Four concludes this thesis and asks: can Foucault be viewed as a subalternist? If so, how? With the help of both Spivak''s readings of Foucault and Foucault''s possible reading of the subaltern, this thesis argues for the relevance of subaltern studies in contemporary Taiwan.
Subjects
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
Type
thesis
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