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Can the Subaltern Speak?
Abstract
The original title of this paper was “Power, Desire, Interest.”1 Indeed, whatever power these meditations command may have been earned by a politically interested refusal to push to the limit the founding presuppositions of my desires, as far as they are within my grasp. This vulgar three-stroke formula, applied both to the most resolutely committed and to the most ironic discourse, keeps track of what Althusser so aptly named “philosophies of denegation.”2 I have invoked my positionality in this awkward way so as to accentuate the fact that calling the place of the investigator into question remains a meaningless piety in many recent critiques of the sovereign subject. Thus, although I will attempt to foreground the precariousness of my position throughout, I know such gestures can never suffice.
... Phillips' work falls within the framework of postcolonial literature because the subaltern state of women and the effects of marginalised circumstances (across generations) on the psyche come under scrutiny. Therefore, I also draw upon insights from postcolonial critics such as Bhabha (1995), Fanon (1986), Hook (2005) and Spivak (1988), as issues such as identity and subalternity -important topics in radbraak -are also discussed. Thus, the volume can be psychoanalytically speaking considered as a symptom of repression. ...
... In radbraak word die onderdrukte of gekoloniseerde posisie (fisies, maar veral psigies) waarin die spreker haarself as subalterne bevind beklemtoon. Die term subalterne, gemunt deur Spivak (1988), sluit aan by die aspek van tradisie deurdat dit verwys na die moeder of vrou wat gesosialiseer is binne spesifieke genderrolle wat veroorsaak dat sy en haar nakomelinge in 'n ondergeskikte stand bly deurdat die moederfigure ook dikwels patriargale agente is ten opsigte van die voortsit van toksiese tradisies. Oor die tradisie-kwessie verduidelik Spivak (in Landry en Maclean 1996:241): ...
... Spivak (1994:52) beklemtoon immers dat 'n psigoanalitiese lees van die subjek, "with an informed exchange of cultural currency, can be used to evaluate everyone". Spivak (1988) se aanvanklike mening dat die subalterne nie kan praat nie in "Can the subaltern speak?" kan hier bevraagteken word, want die subalterne kán praat. radbraak is 'n goeie voorbeeld van stemgewing. ...
... The socioeconomic periphery is reflected in their changing status in the public realm, namely, from being the "masters" 主人 (zhuren) in the socialist period to the underclass 底层 (diceng) in the post-socialist era. While Spivak ([1985] 2015) observed voiceless subalterns, the colonial population who are socially and politically excluded, or a lack of institutional recognition of their voices in India, the contemporary Chinese underclass has historically maintained a different relationship with the state power. In the socialist era, the state assumed a proletarian voice by enabling the "telling bitterness" practice 诉苦 (suku). ...
... While different social players attempt to speak for migrant workers, the inevitable epistemic violence (Spivak [1985] 2015) places them as culturally marginalized others. Migrant workers have been trying to speak for themselves in their own voice. ...
New worker poetry has emerged as a unique literary voice in contemporary China. This paper places Chinese new workers as the global working class and focuses on the poetics of their global vision. Through a close reading of poems written by Xiao Hai (1980-), one of the prolific worker poets, I argue that the new worker poet constructs global sociality at the levels of aesthetics, social critique, and cultural proposal. Aesthetically, Xiao Hai has borrowed inspiration from classical Chinese poetry, western counter-culture icons, and contemporary avant-garde spirit in his writings on laborers’ ordeals. Global sociality embodies a powerful critique of hierarchical global systems in which laborers are positioned at the bottom. It is also a cultural ideal rooted in revolutionary nostalgia and classical notions, a passionate call for connection among like-minded people, and an awareness of workers’ shared identity. Raising their voices in poetry, Xiao Hai, as well as other worker poets, actively explore opportunities to make their voices heard on a broader scale
... I want to be very clear about this point: I have not argued that, through personification, one can know, feel, and experience what it is to be someone else. Subaltern Studies have taught us well enough the immense risk of the chimera of thinking that one can speak for, and from the perspective of, somebody else (Spivak 1988). It is for this reason that throughout the article I have endeavoured to use language that underscores how the worlds that Nikephoros discovers are imagined and are the worlds of the subjects of personifications inasmuch as these are imagined by Nikephoros. ...
This article explores how reading the twelfth-century text of Nikephoros Basilakes’ Progymnasmata in dialogue with the notion of worldmaking prompts a new, more capacious understanding of the transformative possibilities of personification, revealing the potential of this rhetorical exercise as an instrument to discover, explore, and experiment with alternative ways to perceive, relate to, and make sense of reality. I argue that personification works within and with the mediateness of one’s access to the world, inviting the rhetor performing the exercise to become aware of the cultural and symbolic forces that shape their ways of being in the world, work to put them aside, and try to imagine how the world could be otherwise. This searching of elsewheres of worldmaking is transformative, because it enables the practitioner of personification to discover new ways of seeing, feeling, being in, and making sense of the world.
... The last few years have given rise to several social and cultural movements in the North American sphere-#MeToo, Black Lives Matter, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women-intended to give voice to the silenced. Indeed, silence-that is, "the fact of keeping silent" (OED)-has long inaccurately and paternalistically been used as a metaphor linked to the subaltern (Spivak 2003), those found in the margins of society whose voices were not silent but rather silenced, namely unlistened. ...
This article looks at Margaret Atwood’s postmodernist Neo-Victorian novel Alias Grace through the lens of Elizabeth A. Flynn, Patricia Sotirin, and Ann Brady’s theories on feminist resilience. In seeing Grace Marks’ resilience as rhetorical, relational, and contextual, this paper provides a deep analysis of feminine vulnerability in the novel and establishes silence as a mechanism for resilience at its center, one which allows Grace to persist and subvert her position as a madwoman through the power of knowledge.
... This shows that the dilemma between empathy and objectivity is not only a methodological issue but also an ethical and political one. 46 More contemporary approaches, such as those proposed by Johnson, attempt to address this dilemma by adopting what she calls "immanent critique." This approach seeks to understand the practices and thinking of research subjects within their normative framework while retaining a critical position. ...
This study presents common problems of Sufi texts’ interpretation by orientalists, with a specific emphasis on the Annemarie Schimmel’s works. The primary purpose of this study is to uncover biases and limitations that may reside in Schimmel's approach to Sufism and to pave the way for a more reflective and contextual approach in Islamic studies. This work employs a philosophical hermeneutic approach developed by Hans-Georg Gadamer. The primary data source comes from Schimmel's works on Sufism, while secondary data are obtained from academic literature related to hermeneutics, Orientalism, and the study of Sufism. The results of the study show that Schimmel's understanding of Sufi texts is influenced by her prejudices and understandings as an orientalist. Schimmel's "casting fusion" process produces a rich interpretation but is not free from inherent bias. In conclusion, this study has revealed essential dimensions in the hermeneutics of Sufi texts studied by Schimmel and the emphasis on the need for more critical and reflective cross-cultural dialogue to understand the Islamic spiritual tradition more deeply.
Within the domain of world Englishes scholarship, approaches to theorization, inquiry, and classroom practice are inextricably linked to dialogue attending to identity. From the time of Braj B. Kachru's emergent conceptualizations of the pluricentricity of English and the hybridity of identity in (post)colonial settings around the globe, researchers, researcher‐practitioners, teachers, and community members alike have dialogued regarding how world Englishes are bound up with the negotiation of being, belonging, and becoming. Scholars continue to contend with accounting for globalization and ever‐increasing diversity and hybridity within and transcending communities. Some have questioned the extent to which the scope of world Englishes scholarship affords space for attention to movement, change, and complexity, while others assert that world Englishes theorization and inquiry has been and continues to be dynamic and conceptually inclusive. Additionally, debates within and transcending world Englishes scholarship pertaining to the apprehension of experience and (in)equity grow ever more prevalent.
Post‐disaster recovery highly depends on the strength of social capital within affected communities. It facilitates collective action, resource mobilisation, and collaboration among involved actors. This paper explores the collaborative efforts through social capital ties among the Sama‐Bajau community, local government, and non‐governmental organisations following Super Typhoon Rai in the Philippines on December 16, 2021. Through an ethnographic approach, findings suggest that bonding social capital ensures affected Sama‐Bajau households prompt relief efforts and secure the sustainability of their lifestyle. Bridging social capital with non‐government and faith‐based organisations connects the community to other civil societies and the local government. However, weak linking social capital with national and local government units contributes to the exclusion of Indigenous communities from other forms of aid. Our findings underscore the importance of fostering inclusive socio‐cultural interventions and strengthening their social capital to enhance the effectiveness of collaborative governance with Indigenous communities.
The Indigenous Bhil tribe of India carries forward a lineage of a prehistoric dotted artistic style, known as Bhil art, to articulate a deep ontological engagement with the natural world. Lately, some Bhil artists have been creating in the medium of graphic narratives (in books) to restore their Indigenous epistemologies, and in the process, remodel and indigenize the art form altogether. Analyzing the picture book Tree Matters (2014) by Gangu Bai, Gita Wolf, and V. Geetha, the paper examines various visual-verbal strategies to underscore how, through its unique adaptation, the art fosters a visualization of a Bhil native ecology and entanglement. In this paper, we argue that such work challenges logocentric discourses that hierarchize the ‘written’ over the ‘visual.’ Tree Matters not only attempts at restor(y)ing the Earth through Indigenous art forms; it also acts as a decolonial tool that disseminates an ecological agenda against anthropocentric worldviews.
The term 'Ayi' (Auntie) has often been used in a less discriminatory way than 'Baomu' (Nanny, Maid) to describe female domestic workers from outside the immediate family. Research into the development of the concept of ayi interrogates the identity construction and transformation of female domestic workers as part of the emergence of a post-socialist market economy. To understand the lived experiences of this social group which could provide us with insights into gender equality issues in China, we have collected and analysed data from in-depth interviews and focus group with female domestic workers from rural backgrounds. Existing research suggests that ayi has become a split-subject, anchoring a historical moment within the fast urbanization process in a patriarchal and neoliberal post-socialist China featured by intertwined social inequalities. The idea of 'becoming ayi' provides a new conceptualization and contextualization of identity negotiations and cultural production intersecting region, the rural-urban divide, class, and gender where female subjects have usually been viewed as either passive or active. The con-ceptualization of 'becoming ayi' works as a necessary intervention that replaces the previous binary oppositions between subject and other, agency and victimization, central and peripheral to better understand the identification of female domestic workers in contemporary China. ARTICLE HISTORY
This paper constitutes a significant component of a comprehensive project submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for a Postgraduate Research thesis.
I hope this (chapter and the broader project) can assist as the reader's guide to explore these works in depth, to locate the literary works in political landscapes and interpret them through the nuances of class and caste hierarchy.
This article explores the decolonial and feminist applications of orientalism and neomedievalism in Patty Jenkins (2017) film, Wonder Woman. It analyzes their potential for destranslatio imperii within the context of the reimagined Greek myth of the Amazons. Translatio imperii employs both mechanisms to delineate imperial boundaries and construct otherness as distant in both space and time. While the myth has traditionally supported translatio imperii, the film employs it for the opposite purpose. This article introduces the concept of destranslatio imperii to describe the reverse spatiotemporal movement of those who were orientalized or medievalized. I propose that the film Wonder Woman allegorizes destranslatio imperii from the Global South, encompassing communities not only from third-world countries but also Indigenous populations such as Native Americans. By analyzing the film, I will highlight how it critiques the civilizing project of European modernity, which perpetuates a capitalist rationality that excludes women and Indigenous peoples.
Indian history has been a lively history of dispute and dialectic between exploiters and oppressed, colonizers and colonized, authoritative and powerless. Dalit literature is known for its conflict and rebellion of the subordinate caste against the higher-class community. Dalit women are notably twicely manipulated. Feminism, or feminist, deals with society in general and women in particular. This research paper features the troubles faced by Dalit women. It also focused on the self recognition of the marginalized women in the novel Bama's Karukku.
Leveraging Bourdieu's capital theory, this study investigates how Korean middle‐class mothers employ educational strategies to ensure their children's enrollment in prestigious universities, aiming for class reproduction. It delineates their involvement across various domains, including home, school, shadow education, and mothers' networks. The findings contribute to understanding the role of middle‐class parental involvement in class positioning in Korea, while also offering a reconceptualization of Asian parenting styles against the stereotype of “tiger parenting” from a postcolonial perspective.
Drawing from the experiences of researchers associated with feminist disability studies, this article reflects on care as an ethical foundation in the processes of academic knowledge production. In a qualitative study using a constructivist grounded theory approach, we analysed interviews and identified key points of reflection that reveal interactions aimed at building communities and alliances within and beyond academia. A model of thinking about care as an ethic oriented towards reshaping the relationships with participants in academic studies is advanced. In this context, certain feminist research practices are highlighted, aimed at redistributing power in these processes.
Hanif Kureishi's 1990 debut novel, The Buddha of Suburbia, investigates, among other things, mimicry and the crisis of identity among the diasporic community living in multicultural postcolonial Britain. Set mainly in South London and partly in New York in the early 1970s, the novel portrays a young mixed-race man called Karim, who aspires to leave the boring suburban life in order to explore life in central London. As he tries assimilating into English culture, he realizes that his former colonial history and new-found identity clash, complicating his perception of identity formation. Thus, he develops a kind of mimicry, which further complicates his identity in the novel. Karim negotiates his identity as a reader between belonging and not belonging to the English culture. In another sense, he is stuck in a 'third space' proposed by Homi K. Bhabha, as Karim feels 'born and bred, almost' like an Englishman, but he is not entirely English. In short, Karim becomes the marginalized character in the novel as he represents the colonial 'Other' in the text. His relation to the surrounding, especially to the English people living in London, illustrates how the diasporic, colonized others and marginalized people are treated in a post-WWII multicultural Britain. Overall, this paper investigates identity crisis and mimicry in Hanif Kureishi's novel with some critical observation on Karim's identity. In order to do so, the author delves into establishing theoretical connections from postcolonial perspectives.
El artículo analiza una experiencia de prácticas museales decoloniales fruto de la colaboración entre la Universidad de Guadalajara y la comunidad de San Juan Bautista de La Laguna, Lagos de Moreno, Jalisco, México. La exposición “Los Hijos del Agua”, inaugurada en abril de 2017, exploró el patrimonio bioartesanal de fibras vegetales en una comunidad que defiende el control de los recursos hídricos del lago, en un contexto de crisis ecológicas, conflictos con autoridades municipales y resistencia comunal por su autonomía. La metodología decolonial empleada, basada en la “coconstrucción horizontal de significados” promovió la inclusión de saberes comunitarios, enfrentando las profundas inequidades sociales y los hegemónicos sobre el patrimonio.
This article’s contribution utilizes eroticism to re-imagine the meanings of what it is to feel fully and pleasurably as becoming, in tandem with existing, moving through, and/or being present to one’s traumas. Therefore, what possibilities emerge when the erotic is emboldened as an engagement of transgressing and melting binaries of self and community? And further, reading with an erotic praxis, while the content of the text engaged might not be deemed erotic, what are the possibilities presented when the overall practice of reading, regardless of the material being deemed academic and/or leisure, is approached as erotic?.
In literary and cinematic narratives, female villains are often reduced to simplistic archetypes with their character complexities overshadowed by conventional portrayals. Through the characterization of Cersei Lannister from Game of Thrones (2011-2019) and Nellie Lovett from Sweeney Todd (2007), this article explores the interplay of pain and pleasure, unveiling the layers beneath their actions and motivations. Referring to sociocultural feminist theories, the paper shows how traditional gender boundaries are challenged through 'killing the angel' and returning the male gaze. Also, building on French psychoanalytic feminism, we attempt to examine how feelings of 'lack' and 'desire' are manifested in experiences of pain and pleasure. The findings reveal that these female villains defy societal expectations and traditional gender boundaries. The main conclusion is that both Cersei Lannister and Nellie Lovett renegotiate the boundaries of gender, reclaiming their own autonomy and agency. By acknowledging the coexistence of pain and pleasure, one can negotiate the multilayered and diverse experience of womanhood.
This article consolidates the emerging discursive-performative paradigm in populist studies by presenting the idea of populism as an aesthetic transgression, bridging the gap between discursive and sociocultural-performative strands. The article is broadly inspired by Jacques Rancière’s notion of aesthetics as the ‘partage du sensible’ and critically employs it to understand how populism transgresses the rules establishing what can appear in politics. The article claims that populism is aesthetically transgressive in two ways: (1) by making visible subalternised subjects through the discursive articulation of the ‘people’ and (2) by naming the ‘elite’ in a way that makes visible underlying modes of domination. The article argues that this framework allows for a more fruitful understanding of the relationship between populism and topics such as crisis and institutionalism. Moreover, the article employs this framework to differentiate between emancipatory and reactionary forms of populism, connecting emancipatory populism to queer aesthetic practices and explaining how it reinvigorates liberal democracy. Conversely, reactionary populism mobilises what Hannah Arendt called the ‘mob’ and ends up reinforcing modes of domination.
Mit dem Begriff der Armutsdiskurse lassen sich historische »Armutsde-batte[n]« (Hradil 2010: 3) fassen. Hervorgehoben werden dann spezifische, historisch-kulturell situierte Äußerungsinhalte respektive damit verbundene inhaltliche Positionen. Armutsdebatten verweisen beispielsweise darauf, dass das Phänomen der Armut immer wieder neu verhandelt wird: ›Ist Armut relativ oder nur absolut bestimmt?‹ ›Wird Armut der individuellen Leistungsfähigkeit oder strukturellen Teilhabebedingungen zugeschrieben?‹ ›Ist Armut nur ökonomisch definiert oder auch sozial-kulturell?‹ Plädoyers für die eine, die andere oder weitere Positionen symbolisieren die inhaltlichen Möglichkeiten, die innerhalb von Armutsdebatten in Bezug auf eine Bestimmung von Armut eingenommen werden. Der Begriff der Armutsdiskurse geht in diesem Fall im Begriff der Armutsdebatte auf. Diskurstheoretisch nehmen sich vor allem wissenssoziologische Zugänge (vgl. Keller 2005: 175ff.) der diskursiven Logik von Debatten an. Sie interessiert, wie diese strategisch oder taktisch von sozialen Akteuren formiert werden, welche Interessen, Motive, Bedürfnisse und Zwecke sich also in der Art und Weise, wie etwas gedacht, geäußert und gewusst wird, einschreiben (vgl. ebd.: 217). Korrespondierend dazu, aber aus einer anderen theoretischen Deutungsperspektive, wendet sich die »Kritische Diskursanalyse« der Formierung von Denk-und Deutungslogiken zu (Jäger 1999). Allerdings wendet sie das Verhältnis von Praxis und Diskurs im Unterschied zu wissenssoziologischen Zugängen und argumentiert aus einer materialistischen Perspektive für ein Verständnis des Diskurses als »überindividuell« (ebd.: 148): »Das Individuum macht den Diskurs nicht, das Umgekehrte ist der Fall« (ebd.). Mit einer diskurstheoretischen Perspektive, wie sie die Kritische Diskursanalyse einnimmt, deutet sich schon an, dass Armutsdiskurse nicht in Armutsdebatten aufgehen. Sie lassen sich vielmehr in einem umfassenderen Sinne auch als historisch-spezifische Möglichkeitsräume der Rationalisierung und ...
This article scrutinizes two texts written or based in late colonial India, authored by a British and an Indian woman: “Feroza” by Flora Annie Steel from her anthology The Flower of Forgiveness (1894) and Saguna: The Story of Native Christian Life (1895) by Krupabai Satthianadhan, which was reissued in 1998 as Saguna: The First Autobiographical Novel in English by an Indian Woman. Taking into account the dressed body, Christian conversion, and interactions with missionaries in these texts, this article argues about the consequences and repercussions of Indian women assuming English dress or refusing to do so in a reforming late Victorian India. I unpack how the narratives punctuate the social factors of anglicisation, the expected outcomes of Christian conversion, and women’s agency in choosing their own dress, using the theory of the “dressed body” and colonial mimicry. The female body is racialized and determined by social structures but also constitutes the individual’s social and personal identity. Dress, in adding an envelope and a visual metaphor to the woman’s body becomes part of her bodily presentation, becoming an embodied practice, and making an embodied subject out of the wearer. I use dress and the “dressed body” as methodological media within a postcolonial framework in analysing how the women’s sartorial choices affect their encounters and their overall existence in late colonial India.
The COVID-19 pandemic has made historical and contemporary colonial relationships between and within states more fraught. This complexity is apparent within the research process itself, adding a new dimension to debates on positionality and the politics of knowledge production. Drawing on critical approaches to International Relations, and in dialogue with an emerging literature on the implications of the pandemic for knowledge decolonization, we reflect on our experience as scholars from the UK/Ireland researching colonial legacy and Transitional Justice in Colombia. The aim of this autoethnographic article is to suggest how the COVID-19 pandemic affected inequalities between researchers based in Europe and participants in Latin America. Our findings are mixed. While Covid-related funding cuts undermined equity within relationships, the virtual field offered an opportunity to cultivate cooperation between researcher and participant and re-think issues of ethics, voice, and the research agenda itself. Finally, El Maestro Covid taught us valuable lessons on the colonial trap inherent in our endeavors.
This paper examines the emancipatory potential of poetry as a methodological tool within Development Studies, arguing that poetry serves as a medium for amplifying marginalised voices and challenging dominant narratives of development. By employing critical poetic inquiry, researchers can embrace arts-based methods that recognise diverse epistemologies and foster inclusivity. This approach allows for a more nuanced understanding of the lived experiences of marginalised communities, empowering them to co-create knowledge and advocate for social justice. Drawing on theoretical frameworks from critical pedagogy, particularly the work of Paulo Freire, the paper underscores the importance of voice and dialogue with reflection as a catalyst for action and transformation. Furthermore, it explores how poetic inquiry disrupts traditional power dynamics in research, positioning marginalised individuals not merely as subjects but as active agents in the knowledge production process, while acknowledging the challenges faced in legitimising such methods within the development narrative in academia.
This article claims that, despite their critical-political stances, three current and influential theoretical frameworks – intersectionality, decoloniality, and ‘Indigenous localism’ – unconsciously accept global capitalism. The article focuses on the work of Crenshaw, Mignolo, Coulthard, and Tuck and Yang, respectively, to argue that, by ascribing to identity politics (intersectionality), a pluriversal politics of authenticity (decoloniality), and a decentralized ‘incommensurability’ (Indigenous localism), each engages in the culturalization and/or localization of politics – one that disavows the dimension of political economy, and because of that, one that conforms well with, and poses no threat to, capitalist liberal globalization. The article concludes by reflecting on what such disavowal says about our late capitalist times, as well as the potentialities and perils of a contemporary subaltern anti-capitalist politics.
Situating household mold within a growing body of critical geography concerned with toxicity and exposures, this paper interrogates the racial logics and temporal dynamics of “toxic” mold. Responding to heightened public interest and governmental intervention in mold in the United Kingdom in recent years, this paper addresses the underexamination of mold in both housing and toxic geography scholarship. The “contemporary mold crisis” is located against a longer international history of toxic mold exposure, revealing toxicity as a multivalent designation through which certain homes, spaces, and bodies are rendered as toxic more readily than others. This paper argues that attuning closely to the materialities of dwelling conditions can produce generative and highly precise work through which one can attain a better understanding of modalities of violence and harm in a housing context. In parallel, it demonstrates the political value of attending to a “mundane” and “banal” toxin such as mold in geography.
The risk environment framework (REF) is a widely-accepted tool in policy research related to drug use. Its prevalence warrants a critical exploration of its strengths and weaknesses. This critical appraisal is a comprehensive analysis of the REF by definition and through relevant examples of its use within the context of public health evaluations, social science research, and epidemiological strategies in substance use-related policy. We examine the tensions inherent to a risk environment analysis, centering on its deficit-based lens of behavior, risk, and harm. This narrative review argues for shifts in frameworks within drug policy research away from individual- and community-level blame.
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