@article{ART002170585},
author={Miji Park},
title={Gayatri Spivak’s Subaltern Ethics in Mahasweta Devi’s “Pterodactyl, Puran Sahay, and Pirtha”},
journal={Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University},
issn={1598-3021},
year={2016},
volume={73},
number={4},
pages={59-107},
doi={10.17326/jhsnu.73.4.201611.59}
TY - JOUR
AU - Miji Park
TI - Gayatri Spivak’s Subaltern Ethics in Mahasweta Devi’s “Pterodactyl, Puran Sahay, and Pirtha”
JO - Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University
PY - 2016
VL - 73
IS - 4
PB - Institute of Humanities, Seoul National University
SP - 59
EP - 107
SN - 1598-3021
AB - This paper examines Gayatri Spivak’s subaltern ethics discussed in her A Critique of Postcolonial Reason: Toward a History of the Vanishing Present. I analyze Mahasweta Devi’s “Pterodactyl, Puran Sahay, and Pirtha” drawing upon Spivak’s concepts of “subaltern responsibility,” “ethical singularity,” and “ethics as the experience of the impossible” for which, I argue, Jacques Derrida’s and Emmanuel Levinas’s philosophical thoughts on ethics serve as the foundation. I describe the process in which a mainstream journalist named Puran Sahay in “Pterodactyl, Puran Sahay, and Pirtha” is initiated into “a subaltern responsibility,” which Spivak defines as an ability to respond to subaltern and to be responded by them, thereby establishing a singular ethical relation with the Nagesia tribe, or subaltern. I demonstrate that “Pterodactyl, Puran Sahay, and Pirtha” reflects Spivak’s hope for making representations of subaltern possible－the question that she consistently contemplates－through an ethical relation with subaltern and her demand for painstaking labor until the experience of the impossible becomes possible. My study is significant in that Spivak's subaltern ethics enables silenced and forgotten people around the world who struggle to establish their individual identity as a “subject” rather than an “Other” to have a voice and be heard.
KW - Spivak;Devi;Derrida;Levinas;Subaltern;Other;Ethics;Responsibility;Experience of the Impossible
DO - 10.17326/jhsnu.73.4.201611.59
ER -
Miji Park. (2016). Gayatri Spivak’s Subaltern Ethics in Mahasweta Devi’s “Pterodactyl, Puran Sahay, and Pirtha”. Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University, 73(4), 59-107.
Miji Park. 2016, "Gayatri Spivak’s Subaltern Ethics in Mahasweta Devi’s “Pterodactyl, Puran Sahay, and Pirtha”", Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University, vol.73, no.4 pp.59-107. Available from: doi:10.17326/jhsnu.73.4.201611.59
Miji Park "Gayatri Spivak’s Subaltern Ethics in Mahasweta Devi’s “Pterodactyl, Puran Sahay, and Pirtha”" Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University 73.4 pp.59-107 (2016) : 59.
Miji Park. Gayatri Spivak’s Subaltern Ethics in Mahasweta Devi’s “Pterodactyl, Puran Sahay, and Pirtha”. 2016; 73(4), 59-107. Available from: doi:10.17326/jhsnu.73.4.201611.59
Miji Park. "Gayatri Spivak’s Subaltern Ethics in Mahasweta Devi’s “Pterodactyl, Puran Sahay, and Pirtha”" Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University 73, no.4 (2016) : 59-107.doi: 10.17326/jhsnu.73.4.201611.59
Miji Park. Gayatri Spivak’s Subaltern Ethics in Mahasweta Devi’s “Pterodactyl, Puran Sahay, and Pirtha”. Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University, 73(4), 59-107. doi: 10.17326/jhsnu.73.4.201611.59
Miji Park. Gayatri Spivak’s Subaltern Ethics in Mahasweta Devi’s “Pterodactyl, Puran Sahay, and Pirtha”. Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University. 2016; 73(4) 59-107. doi: 10.17326/jhsnu.73.4.201611.59
Miji Park. Gayatri Spivak’s Subaltern Ethics in Mahasweta Devi’s “Pterodactyl, Puran Sahay, and Pirtha”. 2016; 73(4), 59-107. Available from: doi:10.17326/jhsnu.73.4.201611.59
Miji Park. "Gayatri Spivak’s Subaltern Ethics in Mahasweta Devi’s “Pterodactyl, Puran Sahay, and Pirtha”" Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University 73, no.4 (2016) : 59-107.doi: 10.17326/jhsnu.73.4.201611.59
