Spivak's Derrida: exploring the materiality of discourse

Abstract

This paper argues how it is that woman’s role and function within a global economy works in tandem with her own discursive inscription. By drawing on the work of Gayatri Spivak, it suggests a way in which Jacques Derrida’s discursive treatment of the figure of woman intersects with her material manifestation, her expected roles and functions. It finds that the figure of woman in Derrida’s work can be productively thought in conjunction with living woman’s concrete objectification under capitalism. Most generally, the paper hopes to open one line of discussion into the way that certain oppressive institutions are constructed and sustained.