‘The slow desire to learn from the enemy despite knowing
there are reasons why they are your enemy is the only thing I can teach my
students.’
Academic Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak is spearheading an
international initiative to translate some of the classics of Bengali
literature into English. She spoke to the YouTube channel Prohor about
this project.
When asked about translating Mahashweta Devi’s short
story, Draupadi, she said, “It was a cosmopolitan gesture to
translate police double speak on the part of a so-called illiterate, naked
tribal. Who’s the agent here?”
While talking about the divide between first world and third
world nations, she said she does not believe in the monolithic division between
the two. She added, “I tell my students, who live in the US, that they are
children of a superpower. Look at your complicity – don’t your parents pay
income tax here? Therefore, remember, you are folded together with those in
power.”
Spivak also spoke on the ideals of Comparative Literature.
She observed, “Any language can be a first language. When we say first language,
we mean mother language – the language that forms our meaning-making system.
There must be an acknowledgement of every person’s mother’s tongue.”
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IMAGE COURTESY- LITERARINESS