In her first full treatment of postcolonial studies, Spivak attempts to describe a responsible role for the postcolonial critic within the postcolonial enclave. This book tracks the figure of the "native informant" through various cultural practices- philosophy, history, literature- to suggest that it emerges as the metropolitan hybrid. It also addresses feminists, philosophers, critics, and interventionist intellectuals as they unite and divide. It ranges from Kant's analytic of the sublime to child labor in Bangladesh.

Philosophy --Literature -- History -- Culture. Preface -- Philosophy -- Literature -- History -- Culture -- Appendix -- Index.