Short Form: Gayatri Spiyak

Gayatri Spiyak’s work on post colonialism and feminism in literature has made a profound impact on the interpretation of Third World literature. You may, in fact, remember her name from my post on Post-Colonialism and the Reader. Spiyak grew up and studied in Calcutta, before obtaining her PhD in Comparative Literature from Cornell. She founded the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society at Columbia University, where she is a professor. In addition, she was the first woman of color to occupy the highest faculty position in the entire history of the university.While Spiyak’s primary focus is not translation, the subject cannot be avoided in her field. And while Spiyak’s work centers on feminism, it is important to note that there is no reason her approach to translation can be applied across the board. The primary text I am using for this summary comes from her article, “The Politics of Translation”.