Spivak and Sontag: Deconstructing Borders Through a Philosophical Appraisal of Literature

By focusing on intersections between philosophy and literature, this chapter demonstrates that philosophical research in literature has contributed to deconstructing the concept of border by proposing a new understanding of it in relation to the body. The chapter compares the work of two pioneering scholars of the second half of the twentieth century, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and Susan Sontag, who have provided two versions of the most fruitful and original critical thinking in the field of the philosophy of literature. More specifically, the comparison develops links between two autobiographical texts by Sontag—Reborn. Journals and Notebooks 1947–1963 (2008) and As Consciousness Is Harnessed to Flesh. Journals and Notebooks, 1964–1980 (2012)—and three works by Spivak—her translator preface to Derrida’s Grammatology (1976), ‘Love me, love my ombre, elle’ (1984), and Death of a Discipline (2003).