Speaking Beyond Universal Sisterhood: Gayatri Spivak's Critique of Western Feminist Representation in Elif Shafak's Black Milk

Abstract

This study examines Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak's critique of universal sisterhood through a postcolonial reading of Black Milk. Employing qualitative textual analysis, the study investigates how Spivak's theoretical perspective exposes the limitations of Western feminist claims that seek to represent women as a homogeneous group. The analysis demonstrates that although Black Milk presents shared experiences of womanhood, Spivak's critique questions the assumption that women across different cultural and historical contexts can be represented through a single feminist discourse. The findings reveal that the concept of universal sisterhood overlooks the socio-cultural specificities of Third World women and reinforces representational practices that marginalize non-Western voices. The study concludes that Spivak's postcolonial feminist framework challenges universalizing narratives by emphasizing the importance of cultural difference and the need to recognize the diverse realities of women's experiences beyond Western feminist assumptions.