This seminar explores the intellectual outlook and oeuvre of philosopher, translator and feminist critic Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. Departing from her most widely known essay "Can the subaltern speak?", a key text of postcolonial studies, we will aim for a more qualified understanding of Spivaks crucial works and relevant concepts. Besides considering the relations between theory and practice, Spivaks positions will be discussed in context, which is to say, with a side look at relevant literary and theoretical contacts such as Jacques Derrida, Sigmund Freud, Judith Butler, Luce Irigaray and others. A special focus will be on Spivaks widely discussed concept of planetarity with regard to world literature and environmentalism.