EN270: Transnational Feminism, 2011/12Sorcha Gunne

s.gunne@warwick.ac.ukOffice: H540

Office Hour: Tuesday, 11am

Questions:  What is Subalternity? How useful is it at a tool, or mode, of critical analysis? What are the limitations of this theoretical approach? To what extent is ‘Draupadi’ a study of subalternity? Does Devi’s story challenge or reproduce dominant structures of power, or both? Can we think about ‘Draupadi’ without thinking of Spivak? In other words, to what extent are ‘Draupadi’ and Spivak co-dependent in the critical canon? Pick a passage from ‘Draupadi’ and construct a close reading of it that is informed by either Mohanty’s ‘Under Western Eyes’ essay or Spivak’s ‘Can the Subaltern Speak?’ essay.  

“The category of the ‘subaltern’ was intended to shed light on the practices of dominance and resistance outside the framework of class struggle, but without ignoring class itself” (Gopal)

Naxalite Revolution

Draupadi in the Epic

Mahabharata

Questions:  What is Subalternity? How useful is it at a tool, or mode, of critical analysis? What are the limitations of this theoretical approach? To what extent is ‘Draupadi’ a study of subalternity? Does Devi’s story challenge or reproduce dominant structures of power, or both? Can we think about ‘Draupadi’ without thinking of Spivak? In other words, to what extent are ‘Draupadi’ and Spivak co-dependent in the critical canon? Pick a passage from ‘Draupadi’ and construct a close reading of it that is informed by either Mohanty’s ‘Under Western Eyes’ essay or Spivak’s ‘Can the Subaltern Speak?’ essay.  

Next Week...

CarenKaplan, Norma Alarcón and Minoo Moallem (eds) (1999) Between Woman and Nation

Woman and Nation