Imaginary Maps

Spivak presents a collection of three of Devi's stories. Devi, a journalist and "organic intellectual" who has focused largely on women's issues and globalization, serves here to detail the intricacies of global capitalism and alienation. Devi's stories are powerful as works of literature, and heartwrenching as stories representative of true-to-life experiences. Spivak's introduction is informative, dense and jargony, but of course integral to an understanding of the works at hand. She pleads the American reader to not "museumify" the writings that she translates, that is not to view them as representative cultural artifacts to be observed and objectified. This is an important ideal to abandon when reading Devi's work because it is representative of so much more than words on a page, more than painstakingly detailed characters. Devi's writing is historically and contextually complex, and deserves acclaim for its purpose rather than its literary characteristics. Accordingly, the language seems bland. Perhaps something was lost in translation, or perhaps this functions to strengthen Devi's ultimate purpose as a writer.

This is a powerful exposé of the effects of global capitalism, told in the form of three colorful, sometimes humorous, sometimes painful, highly readable stories. It gives an insider's look at the current realities faced by tribal peoples in India and challenges the privilege of those who look on or look away without committing to making change.