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Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

b. 1942

Indian scholar, literary theorist, and feminist critic

Born
24 Feb 1942 · Kolkata
Part ofIndia600 BCE – today

Life timeline

Their life from birth to death. On the timeline, world events of the time are shown faintly.

Showing 97 years
  1. 24 Feb 1942BornBorn in Kolkata
  2. 1995AwardGuggenheim Fellowship
  3. 2012AwardKyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy
  4. 2014AwardHonorary doctor of Paris 8 University
  5. 2021AwardCorresponding Fellow of the British Academy
  6. 2024AwardHonorary doctorate of Paris Nanterre University
  7. 2025AwardHolberg International Memorial Prize

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Meanwhile in the world

Major world events during their lifetime (1942 – today).

  1. 1942 – 1943Battle of Stalingrad
  2. 1945Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
  3. 1945 – 1946Nuremberg trials
  4. 19501950 FIFA World Cup
  5. 1950 – 1953Korean War
  6. 1953 – 1959Cuban Revolution
  7. 19541954 FIFA World Cup
  8. 1955 – 1975Vietnam War
  9. 1956Hungarian Revolution of 1956
  10. 1956Suez Crisis
  11. 19581958 FIFA World Cup
  12. 1959Antarctic Treaty System
  13. 19621962 FIFA World Cup
  14. 1962Cuban Missile Crisis
  15. 19661966 FIFA World Cup
  16. 1966 – 1976Cultural Revolution
  17. 1968Prague Spring
  18. 1969Apollo 11 Moon landing
  19. 19721972 Summer Olympics
  20. 19741974 FIFA World Cup
  21. 19781978 FIFA World Cup
  22. 1978 – 1979Iranian Revolution
  23. 1979 – 1989Soviet–Afghan War
  24. 1980 – 1988Iran–Iraq War
  25. 19841984 Summer Olympics
  26. 1985Schengen Agreement
  27. 19891989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre
  28. 1989Fall of the Berlin Wall
  29. 19901990 FIFA World Cup
  30. 1991Dissolution of the Soviet Union
  31. 19941994 FIFA World Cup
  32. 1994 – 1996First Chechen War
  33. 19981998 FIFA World Cup
  34. 2001 – 2021War in Afghanistan
  35. 2003 – 2011Iraq War
  36. 20042004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami
  37. 20062006 FIFA World Cup
  38. 20082008 Summer Olympics
  39. 2008Russo-Georgian War
  40. 20102010 Haiti earthquake

Biography

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (born 24 February 1942) is an Indian literary theorist and feminist critic. She is a professor at Columbia University and a founding member of Columbia'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 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 "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 in India. In 2025, Spivak received the Holberg Prize for "her groundbreaking work in the fields of literary theory and philosophy."

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

Text from the Wikipedia article Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, CC BY-SA 4.0

About this information

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