Reviews

Death of a Discipline by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

breadandmushrooms's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

2.75

gmp's review against another edition

challenging informative slow-paced

4.25

regenherz's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective fast-paced

2.0

wmhenrymorris's review against another edition

I knew what to expect going in, but I still had hope for some passages that would provide some insight or stick with me. Sadly, there were very few of these. So I can't honestly say that I liked this book even though I get that Spivak is not really writing for me (even though I have a comp lit degree) and even though the overarching concepts (esp. engagement with area studies) are interesting.

ladyaisha's review against another edition

2.0

Oh Dear! I still believe now what I did over a year ago "life is too short for this"! Unless you're a humanities major, I don't see why bother with Spivak at all! In this particular book she makes some interesting points: identity politics is neither smart nor good (that sentence was why I gave the second star, btw!); the concept of planetarity is a nice spin on Edward Said's Humanism or what he calls Hospitality; she points out the potential lack of rigour in cultural studies; and stress the necessity of direct knowledge of languages in an authentic comparative literature.. All great stuff & that's why I'm disappointed in her writing style & just can't bring myself to get over it :( these are serious issues that deserve an articulate expression..

"All around us is the clamour for the rational destruction of the figure, the demand for not clarity but immediate comprehensibility by the ideological average."

Guess I'm an ideological average, then! I have no plans to become anything else & Ms Spivak may enjoy the view from her high horse!

I highly recommend "Reading the Referent: Post-colonialism and the Writing of Modernity" by Simon Gikandi..