The Spivak Reader offers a selection of a major critic's work, making it accessible to as wide an audience as possible in post-colonial studies, literature, women's studies, cultural studies, philosophy, and sociology. As a theorist, a feminist and a cultural critic, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak has rigorously expanded our understanding of some of the key issues of contemporary thought. The Spivak Reader both introduces many of her most important writings, while also making it possible for students of Spivak's work to view her project as a whole. Headnotes and introductory material (including a new essay, "Reading Spivak") by Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean provide a helpful guide to the selections. Many pieces in the Reader have not been published in Spivak's earlier books; the volume also includes a new interview on the question of the subaltern.