No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.
Can the Subaltern Speak?
... Who represents whom, and who has access to these representations? It is crucial to create spaces and platforms where migrants can speak for themselves (Spivak 1988) without reproducing otherness, making migrants targets of voyeurism, exoticizing them (Sontag 2004) or causing them to become »super-visible«, i.e., reducing them to their status as »migrants« (Brighenti 2007). Therefore, alongside efforts to create migration archives, it is equally important to engage in a parallel discussion on how these archives are producedspecifically, how they are practiced. ...
... Engaging with these materials uncritically can perpetuate a homogeneous and reductionist perspective on migration. While definitions are necessary to discuss issues and categorize biographies and phenomena, there is a risk of oversimplification and reducing individuals to restrictive labels, depriving them of their voices and agency (Spivak 1988). In this context, Francis X. Blouin Jr. and William G. ...
Drawing on critical perspectives on archival practices, this article discusses
archival practices of migration in the German-speaking world. It focuses on a
case study of a family that migrated from Turkey to West Germany as »guest
workers« in the 1970s, with their materials now archived at DOMiD. The
article explores how personal, familial, and social class backgrounds influ-
ence the production, archiving, and accessibility of communication materials.
By juxtaposing and analyzing various data materials, such as audio record-
ings, written correspondence, and a biographical-narrative interview with
the donor of materials, the article aims to uncover the richness and complexi-
ties of migration in general and the case of »suitcase children« in particular
through a critical archival lens. This approach also facilitates a discussion of
representation from the practices of collecting and archiving.
... Theoretically, I am inspired by scholars who have endeavored to write the histories of marginalised people and those who have left behind limited traces. In her article "Can the Subaltern Speak?", Spivak (1988) famously questioned whether marginalised individuals can truly have a voice in history. She further developed her argument by suggesting that teachers and researchers should unlearn their privileges and begin "learning to learn from below" (Spivak 2009, x). ...
... When I read the story of the dying woman, I long for her voice ( Spivak 1988;2009) and try to fill the void by imagining (Hartman 2021) a woman who is trying to drown her sorrows in alcohol. Bergh reported that she had been drunk for several days and had been behaving in a way that the brothel found unacceptable. ...
The article aims to contribute to queer histories of marginalised people and those who have left behind limited traces. It analyses medical sources informing about female same-sex relations among poor and marginalised women in Copenhagen, Denmark, during the late nineteenth century. The medical sources repeatedly mention how women in prostitution engaged in sexual and romantic relations with one other. The article provides examples of how female same-sex relations were described as passionate and dramatic, as well as violent, and proposes an expanded notion of female same-sex relations to accommodate “grim” stories of intimate partner violence and death. Furthermore, the medical reports associated women’s relations with carnal sex, . Finally, the article suggests that it might not have been the gender of a woman’s same-sex partner but rather the woman’s sexual activity, that caused condemnation. As the medical sources are confined to inform about women’s encounters with power authorities, such as doctors and police, I employ “imaginary scenarios” (Hartman 2021) to be able to represent the same-sex relations in a more profound way.
... From a Latin American perspective, such an ideal has also proven unaccomplished due to the colonial inception of modernity. Violence, slavery, racism, and patriarchy are the foundations (Mignolo 2001) upon which the elites manufactured "public spaces" to the detriment of those regarded as subalterns, namely the broad population disallowed to speak -in Spivak's (1988) terms -or to make their voice heard. Such a hierarchical, individualistic, and exclusive (Caldeira 1997;Schlack and Araujo 2022) space was a modern construction in which counter voices and countercultures could squeeze through its cracks (Yúdice 2001) but only under exceptional circumstances. ...
... The case of the subaltern speaking in colonial domains has been well presented by Spivak (1988) in a renowned account that resonates with our case. Latin America was constructed by a political-cultural matrix composed of physical and symbolic violence that convinced the local subjects they were not purveyors of knowledge but rather inferior beings (Saavedra Utman 2019). ...
To what extent does the notion of the public sphere serve to assess Latin America in networked times? The debate over the modern condition of the region and the contradictions of enlightenment values shaping a land conquered by the sword provides the backdrop for evaluating the pertinence of Habermas’s The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere in the region, specifically regarding the chances the subaltern has to speak. Acknowledging its modern imprint and the varied criticisms it has received, the notion of the public sphere a la Habermas, offers a set of criteria for assessing the processes and outcomes of media and public communication development in Latin America. In this sense, this article connects the colonial imprint of Latin American nations, its struggles over media power, the meaning of communication, and the arrival of the Internet and Web 2.0 in the region through the notion of the public sphere. This overview exposes the features of the Internet in Latin America that perpetuate inequality, injustice, and the lack of voice while raising questions about the actual life of the “public” as a concept in the region.
... The process of network readers' reading practice can promote the intermingling of cultures and dissolve the colonial discourse. Spivak's theory of subaltern discourse focuses on women in marginal cultures under the dual oppression of hegemony and patriarchy [14]. With the help of her postcolonial theory, this paper will be able to analyze the role of female e-readers in dispelling network hegemony events. ...
... In addition, the high percentage of women in the online readership makes it possible for it to contribute to post-colonial feminist studies. On the one hand, women who are oppressed by hegemony and patriarchy, as referred to by Spivak [14], theoretically have the opportunity and place to speak out as online readers. On the other hand, the large number of female readers and the interest in postcolonial feminist works will inevitably help the website algorithm to push a wider range of feminist texts. ...
This paper explores the impact of online platforms, institutions and digital reading communities on reading practice in the digital age. The subjective status of the readers and their activeness in the creation and realization of the meaning of literary texts are emphasized by reception aesthetics. The current research on postcolonial literature focuses broadly on the authors perspective and the texts perspective but lacks the readers perspective. This paper puts the changes in readers subjectivity in the digital era under the post-colonial perspective, discussing what kind of changes have taken place in the subjectivity of network readers. Meanwhile, it analyzes how cyber subalterns and elites will influence postcolonial discourse in the digital realm. Using a theoretical and methodological framework covering post-colonialism and receptive criticism, this article demonstrates how marginal discourses can construct and grow spaces within social and cultural limits. The results show that the online reading practice and the formation of online communities further blur cultural boundaries. The post-colonial visual threshold gives readers the task of expanding marginal discourse. Finally, this article illustrates that readers subjectivity is still limited by digital institutions and algorithms, and they must be wary of network colonization.
... In general, social sciences have focused their attention on the relationship between agency and structure for a considerable time (Carlsnaes 1992, Clark 1998, Wendt 1987, Wight 1999. Later on, critical approaches have diversified our understanding on agency by moving forward or away from the classical agency-structure debate, identifyingamong other -other voices and the power relations behind the traditional ideas of who can act or can be considered a relevant actor, and how these logics operate (Spivak 1988, Doty 1997, Suganami 1999. ...
In a globalised world marked by profound crises, the shape of the Christian faith is changing fundamentally. The shift in the dynamics of Christianity towards the global South, increasing conflicts and worldwide migration movements are changing the church(es) and Christianity. Conflicts over recognition, cultural and religious identities and the normative content of modernity are coming to a head. They are ignited by differences in faith practice, styles and hermeneutics, creating new alliances and polarisations across denominations. This book reflects on this and explores the contribution of Christianity to the search for common ground and universal unity in the face of planetary crisis. With contributions by Michelle Becka | Arnd Bünker | Catalina Cerda-Planas | Mariano Delgado | Margit Eckholt | Josef Estermann | Thomas Fornet-Ponse | Brandon Gallaher | Katharina Karl | Martin Kirschner | Klaus Koschorke | Annette Langner-Pitschmann | Joost van Loon | Tim Noble | Amaya Querejazu Escobari | Michael Quisinsky | Martin Rötting | Martin Schneider | Stefan Silber | Ionut Untea
... Apesar das importantes contribuições em relação às questões de gênero realizadas por colegas (Vasan 2010, Dawes 2012, Hill 2016, observamos que mulheres do sul não vêm sendo verdadeiramente ouvidas -ou lidas-. Nesse sentido, a colonialidade de gênero dos sistemas acadêmicos continua a nos posicionar como figuras subalternas (Spivak 1988;Espinosa Miñoso 2014). Nossas contribuições continuam sendo invisibilizadas devido à falta de acesso a traduções, às limitações econômicas para frequentar pessoalmente encontros acadêmicos especializados, além das diferentes formas de violência epistêmica (Pérez 2019) enfrentadas por nós na área. ...
Tratando sobre os problemas de opressão sofrido por mulheres do terceiro mundo, Gloria Anzaldúa propõe um tipo de resistência: a que se dá através do fazer epistêmico e da escrita. “Porque a escrita me salva dessa complacência que temo. Porque eu não tenho escolha. Porque eu preciso manter os espíritos da minha revolta e de mim mesma, vivos. Porque o mundo que eu crio na escrita compensa o que o mundo real não me oferece.” (Anzaldúa 1981: 168). A partir da escrita, ela irá dizer, é possível que conheçamos a nós mesmas e ao nosso mundo. Complementamos esse pensamento afirmando que, com a escrita, também formamos o mundo do jeito que queremos, pois em contexto de batalhas epistêmicas, é a partir de escritas que vemos nossos espaços sendo definidos e, em muitos casos, limitados.Nós, mulheres, cientistas sociais, precisamos estar em constante luta para assegurar nosso espaço que nos foi negado por muito tempo. Um reflexo dessa negação se dá na forma em que somos usualmente mais cobradas em relação aos nossos colegas que são, em sua maioria, brancos, cisgênero, heterossexuais e de classe média. Situações sexistas e misóginas são recorrentes em nossos ambientes de trabalho. Quando procuramos compreender o universo acadêmico através das perspectivas interseccionais, a situação se complexifica, escalonando para níveis extremos de violência. Essas situações se reverberam em toda a esfera acadêmica e os estudos de música popular, incluindo os estudos de heavy metal, não são uma exceção dessa realidade que precisa ser modificada. Continuar leyendo
... As Gayatri Spivak argues in her classic essay "Can the Subaltern Speak?", any "subject" involved in producing knowledge does not participate in a socially innocent or neutral process. Rather, the various ways in which subjectivity is itself configured and legitimized-who gets to "speak" and what is counted as "speaking"-is indelibly tied to the histories of European empire and domination (Spivak 1988). ...
This paper explores recent discussions on the nature and character of Christian doctrine and doctrinal arrangement within leading accounts of systematic theology, that is, the attempt to offer an integrated and cohesive account of the central commitments of the Christian faith. Through such discussion, I argue that the perennial epistemological problem systematic theology faces in its attempts to speak about a (divine) object who definitionally exceeds such speech is related to the specific ethical problem of systematic theology’s performances as a hegemonic discipline, one which often functions to exclude non-white, non-male perspectives. In light of these challenges, I contend that “positive” reasons for continuing systematic theology remain remote; systematic theology cannot be saved. Yet neither can it be avoided, lest such problems are willfully repeated and because of the ways systematic theology continues to be a leading site of doctrinal reflection within Christian education and intellectual reflection. I therefore conclude this paper by exploring two apocalyptic responses to the crises facing systematic theology which advocate for its continuation precisely by calling for its “end”.
... Once taken seriously and moving out of the demarcated space relegated to voice as a mere source of quotes or information, dialogical ap-proaches were in fact challenging the very epistemological basis of objectifying observation and auctorial textuality on which social scientific research had been built and continues to rely upon. By giving primacy to voice instead of representation, these attempts were exploring and approaching the very limits of the discipline of anthropological text production they were trying to reform, providing not just a space in which the subaltern could speak (Spivak 1988) but also a form that revealed the tendency of the conventional anthropological text to subjugate its subjects and to, ultimately, reduce them to subjects without speech. Consequently, even if their merit of bringing the voice of anthropology's interlocutors to the forefront could not be denied, the kind of texts resulting from the attempts to write dialogical anthropology were perceived as problematic, not because they were not interesting or engaging but because they refused to satisfy the demands for objectified description, analysis, and theoretisation the social sciences rely upon and from which they derive their authority as scientific endeavours. ...
One of the most striking features of contemporary migration to Europe and elsewhere is the almost complete anonymity of its pro-tagonists. The most immediate effect of this anonymity has been the emergence of the figure of the ‘migrant’ in public consciousness with little attention for national and personal backgrounds. A related effect of this anonymization of migration has been that, without personal identity, the individuals concerned also seem to have no history, leading to a rather de-historicized view of migration in the public debate. The present text attempts to counter these tendencies by focusing on an individual narrative of migration between West Africa and Europe, dating back to the late 1980s. On a more theoretical plane, by reflecting on an individual account the article reflects on the question of voice as one of the most central problems of ethnographic representation, both in migration studies and more generally.
... Her argument extends beyond the realm of colonial oppression, suggesting that the subaltern woman is further oppressed by patriarchal structures inherent within her own cultural context. This intersectionality of dual oppression renders her voice further marginalized, impeding her ability to effectively represent herself within Western discourse (Spivak 2023). One of the feminist figures that can be harnessed in this study is Laura Mulvey. ...
This study examines the disparate literary representations of Baghdad by Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) and Salah al-Hamdani (1951–). The romanticized and wistful longing for a more exotic and daring Baghdad of Tennyson's "Recollections of the Arabian Nights" is presented. As an illustration of a deep love for its people, al-Hamdani's "Baghdad, Mon Amour" provides a close-up look into the city's stormy past. Al-Hamdani uses powerful imagery and moving language to capture Baghdad's resiliency and eternal soul. The poetry of Hamdani and Lord Tennyson are scrutinized and contrasted in this study using an eclectic approach combining Feminism and Orientalism analysis. In order to capture the poets' literary traditions and lyrical depictions of Baghdad, two poems were chosen. The analysis
demonstrates how poetry may engage with a city's complicated character and history, underscoring Baghdad's ongoing value as a literary inspiration. The investigation comes to the conclusion that, albeit using different approaches, Tennyson and al-Hamdani both successfully convey Baghdad's significance as a historical and cultural metropolis. Al-Hamdani takes a reality-based stance, functioning as an observer, whereas Tennyson highlights the value of Baghdad by incorporating its history and culture.
... The decolonial scholar Gayatri Spivak put forward the position that the elite's construction of an underclass, and their tendency to presume to speak on behalf of those they disenfranchise, means that the means for resistance to oppression are mediated through the oppressor. Thus according to Spivak, the "subaltern"-a group which includes women, the working class, the lower castes, citizens of "third world" countries, the colonized, and especially intersections therein-cannot speak (Spivak 1988). But Spivak's provocation begs the question: can the subaltern speak outside of the structures of the elite? ...
This paper investigates how generative AI can potentially undermine the integrity of collective knowledge and the processes we rely on to acquire, assess, and trust information, posing a significant threat to our knowledge ecosystem and democratic discourse. Grounded in social and political philosophy, we introduce the concept of \emph{generative algorithmic epistemic injustice}. We identify four key dimensions of this phenomenon: amplified and manipulative testimonial injustice, along with hermeneutical ignorance and access injustice. We illustrate each dimension with real-world examples that reveal how generative AI can produce or amplify misinformation, perpetuate representational harm, and create epistemic inequities, particularly in multilingual contexts. By highlighting these injustices, we aim to inform the development of epistemically just generative AI systems, proposing strategies for resistance, system design principles, and two approaches that leverage generative AI to foster a more equitable information ecosystem, thereby safeguarding democratic values and the integrity of knowledge production.
... One extremely popular variation is what Spivak refers to as "subaltern". [1] In short, postcolonial presents a framework for deconstructing the assumptions that have always been formed about the main and most general realities in Western thought. The postcolonial paradigm was created in a stranded way by presenting several actual examples of colonialism's negative effects on physical, political, and cultural spheres. ...
This study set out to identify the types of hybridity that arise from postcolonial cultural interaction with colonial formation. The depictions of Parvez and Ali from Hanif Kureshi's short story My Son the Fanatic are hybrids, according to researchers. The Homi K. Bhabha concept of hybridity was used in this study, which followed a post-colonialist strategy. Bhabha's viewpoint (1994), it is the result of a tangential interaction in distinct cultures. In this instance, hybridity is understood to be the result of the dominance of colonial power dynamics which involves not only the merging of cultures but also cultural objects that are situated in social as well as historical space as a result of post-colonialism. Due to its significance in analyzing descriptive text in predetermined literary works, the qualitative descriptive approach was employed in this research. According to the research's findings, there are two different ways that hybridity is represented in this research. First, because of the content creation that was created, mimicry has a character that is ambiguous and contradictory in the context of cultural fidelity. Parvez, an individual in the narrative, serves as a metaphor for mimicry. Second, Ali, his son, represented ambivalence in the story. Ali resisted the construction because he understood how colonialism discriminated against his culture, but he was confused about what identity he should adopt. The short story "My Son the Fanatic" by Hanif Kureishi depicts cultural hybridity through the characters Parvez and Ali, who represent mimicry and ambivalence resulting from the dynamics of colonial and postcolonial power.
... Although I had supported the network beforehand, taking a representative role suggested a difficult double role: as a white man, I was expecting of myself to take a backseat and mainly occupy a supporting function. On the other hand, I went into this transnational activism with a mission: strong theoretical and ethical priors, being informed by post-and decolonial critique of transnational solidarity work, particularly the problem of speaking "for" others (Alcoff 1992;Mohanty 2003;Spivak 1993). Unsurprisingly, my first interaction with the other members of the international organizing committee was a disaster. ...
The "Global Justice Movement" lived on the conviction that more transnational activism is normatively desirable. But after the postcolonial critique of global justice activism, the problem of hierarchy within movements has shaped the political consciousness of many activists in North-South solidarity, mainstreaming the worry that transnational solidarity mainly serves to feed the good conscience of Western liberals, consequently erasing the agency of Southern "partners". Many movements are anxious about faux solidarity. This paper investigates what this anxiousness does in practice. Participant observation in a transnational advocacy network shows that while the liberal cooperation discourse reproduced transnational hierarchies when assuming the basic sameness of actors (no problematization of agency), the critique of these practices can reproduce marginalization of Southern activists by assuming their subordination in contexts of transnational solidarity (overproblematization of agency). While cosmopolitan assumptions encourage unreflexive cooperation based on superficial commonality, their critique can produce superficial reflexivity by reifying difference and undermining collective action. Focusing on my own failure to establish a level playing field through techniques derived from the critical whiteness discourse, this paper offers auto-ethnographic insights into the challenges of restoring agency in the global South. The article makes an argument about undermining non-Western agency in the course of trying to facilitate it. Instead of appealing to the theoretical/logical registers of the audience, it involves readers in the dilemmas of transnational solidarity projects and attempts to encourage reflexive processes that go beyond binary North-South narratives, suggesting the writing practice of 'arguing by experience'.
... Academic precarity and its connection to casualisation and neoliberal practices within the university has been well documented (Bozzon, et al., 2019;Burton & Bowman, 2022;Docka-Filipek & Stone, 2021). Less is understood about precarity as tied to both race and coloniality, where histories of colonialism and geo-political marginalisation make precarity an intractable, subaltern reality (Spivak, 1988). Our paper, therefore, not only extends the international literature by analysing precarity as a condition of coloniality, but also as intractable, based on our African positionality. ...
The transition into Higher Education can be complex with South African new academics expected to drive institutional change and social transformation. We examine precarity from our situated geopolitical positioning, as a condition of coloniality and neoliberal forces. Our focus on racially marginalised new academics straddling multiple pedagogical roles addresses the challenges of needing to become collective reflexive agents, yet also unbecome conditions of coloniality. Through autoethnography, lived experiences of precarity as affective states are shown to co-produce displaced estrangement, undermine a coherent sense of self, and reinscribe colonial modes of doing and being. We argue that knowledge rooted in African-centred epistemologies offers new academics’ ways to collectively rally together to disrupt the status quo. This approach enriches the minimally understood concept of collective reflexivity. Our findings underscore the value of bringing decolonisation perspectives into conversation with reflexivity theories. We propose collective reflexivity can help new academics navigate their situational challenges.
... The examples in this section illustrate how voices from the Global South are ignored or side-lined in academic discussions (a marginalisation that may be reinforced by gender and age), where certain knowledge systems are imposed on others by silencing and marginalising voices from the Global South within academic discourse (Spivak, 2004). Thus, power structures are multidimensional and discerning them requires a more nuanced approach, such as an intersectional perspective revealing the contexts wherein the power structures are embedded. ...
Grounded in the well-known feminist slogan coined by Carol Hanisch in 1970, “the personal is political,” and informed by the postcolonial decolonising perspective, this article underlines the significance of foregrounding authentic lived experiences, challenging purportedly ‘neutral’ and ‘objectivist’ positivist assumptions. Featuring strong representation of women researchers and individuals of minority backgrounds among our respondents, both within and beyond academia, the article’s discussion is informed by a qualitative autobiographical comparative inquiry that deploys the intersectional perspective. The study (i) profiled ‘Early Career Researchers’ (ECRs) to demystify ‘public-private divide’ conventions, while critically questioning the ECR category’s definition; and (ii) queried disparities and resistances at play with respect to (de)colonising higher education, research, and innovation (HERI) contexts. The findings include narrative insights from 36 participants of the COST Action CA20137 Making Young Researchers’ Voices Heard for Gender Equality (VOICES) network, which includes 480 members, based across Europe. Findings resulting from the thematic analysis of semi-structured interview data critically chronicle (i) the heterogeneity in terms of researchers’ institutionalised categorisations, and (ii) salient intersections such as age range, gender, nationality, country of residence, race, ethnic background, religion, sexual orientation, and socio-economic group. The discussion critically complements existing monitoring and evaluative knowledge-bases (particularly quantitative), with a nuanced discernment of personal experiences; it thus provides valuable insights into the precarious (in)visibility(/-ies) of ECRs that connect the personal, public, and political realms. The discussion concludes with recommendations for monitoring and evaluation policies and practices to foster the mitigation of disparities, invisibilities, and under- and misrepresentations of ECRs.
The role of education in empowering Yemeni refugees in Malaysia
cannot be overstated. Despite the numerous challenges they face,
education offers a pathway to a better future, enabling refugees to
rebuild their lives, achieve economic stability, and integrate into their
host communities. By investing in the education of Yemeni refugees,
Malaysia has the opportunity to not only improve the lives of these
individuals but also to strengthen its own society by fostering a more
inclusive and educated population.
Moving forward, it is essential for Malaysia to continue developing and
implementing policies that support the educational needs of refugees,
ensuring that they have the tools and opportunities to succeed in their
new home. The story of Mr. Sulaiman and others like him highlights
the transformative power of education and the profound impact it can
have on the lives of those who have been displaced by conflict.
This study aims to investigate the issue of the female identity crisis that appeared as a result of the intersection of two distinct cultures during the postcolonial era. To accomplish this objective, the renowned novel Abeng, authored by the American-Jamaican writer Michelle Cliff, has been chosen for analysis. The sample undergoes postcolonial analysis with a focus on biculturalism as a postcolonial phenomenon. The study is a descriptive one, which aims to qualitatively follow the behavior of the main protagonist in the novel "Abeng", Clare Savage. It attempts to determine to what extent her character can be considered an example of a woman who loses her identity as a result of the colonial legacy of bicultural identity. According to the analysis, Clare has become a victim of biculturalism. This means that she is constantly searching for her identity without being able to identify with any specific culture. Throughout the texts, Clare is portrayed as being lost, which leads her to embrace two different cultures and go with the flow. Bu çalışma, postkolonyal dönemde iki farklı kültürün kesişmesi sonucu ortaya çıkan kadın kimliği krizini incelemeyi amaçlamaktadır. Bu amaca ulaşmak amacıyla Amerikalı-Jamaikalı yazar Michelle Cliff'in yazdığı ünlü roman Abeng analiz için seçilmiştir. Örneklem, postkolonyal bir olgu olarak iki kültürlülüğe odaklanan postkolonyal analize tabi tutuluyor. Çalışma, "Abeng" romanının baş kahramanı Clare Savage'ın davranışlarını niteliksel olarak takip etmeyi amaçlayan tanımlayıcı bir çalışmadır. Onun karakterinin, iki kültürlü kimliğin sömürge mirasının bir sonucu olarak kimliğini kaybeden bir kadına ne ölçüde örnek olarak görülebileceğini belirlemeye çalışıyor. Analize göre Clare iki kültürlülüğün kurbanı oldu. Bu onun herhangi bir kültürle özdeşleşemeden sürekli olarak kimliğini aradığı anlamına gelir. Metinler boyunca Clare'in kaybolmuş bir kişi olarak tasvir edilmesi onun iki farklı kültürü kucaklamasına ve akışına bırakmasına neden olur
Since the mid-twentieth century, visual narratives by women have made their mark on Mexican cinema receiving recognition for revealing lesser-known realities of Mexican society. Currently, new female filmmakers are emerging in unprecedented numbers, with increased confidence, experience, access to funds, and international accolades. Their representations of women’s challenging experiences in contemporary Mexico shed light on social worlds in which women’s everyday lives are marked by violence, inequality, and limited agency. In this study, special attention is paid to two emerging contemporary female film directors and their films, namely Tiempo de lluvia (In Times of Rain, 2018) by Itandehui Jansen and Nudo mixteco (2021) by Ángeles Cruz. Both films engage with theoretical debates on the decolonization of the indigenous Mexican social subject, a framework that serves as “a lens that enables us to see what is hidden from our understandings of both race and gender” (Lugones, 2010) and “where we are decolonizing from” (Chasi, 2021). The focus is on the recurrent themes of otherness, marginalization, gender violence, intersectionality, and female agency—or lack thereof.
Trilogía sucia de La Habana (1998) de Pedro Juan Gutiérrez textualiza el antagonismo entre el discurso oficial cubano y la vida cotidiana en Centro Habana durante los años 1990. El tono de una escritura “dura” lleva el ejercicio de la libertad de expresión a una situación de “insilio,” o exilio interior, que oscila entre texto y contexto, autobiografía y autoficción, y lo individual y lo colectivo. Los espacios urbanos donde la escatología, el sexo, la raza y la homosexualidad son invisibles para aquel discurso, en la novela transgreden la normatividad social pretendida. Sin embargo, esta expresión está marcada por una paradoja básica. Si esta escritura ‘denuncia’ lo que el oficialismo hace invisible, la voz narrativa reproduce a su vez la economía fálica del Estado, tanto en el plano material como en la articulación narrativa del deseo sexuado y racializado. Esta tensión demostrará cómo las condiciones de escritura generan contradicciones productivas en el texto.
India has seen progress in the laws and legislations granting rights to queer people in the last ten years. This resulted from decades of activism starting in the late 1980s. However, equal rights and opportunities have not been extended to all queer individuals, revealing fractures within the movement. In this context, this article explores the issues within the queer movements that have led to the hierarchisation of priorities that the movements have advocated for. Historically, queer activism has been dominated by the development sector, operating within neoliberal frameworks and global funding regimes. This has led to the prioritisation of certain issues due to the privileged backgrounds of those leading the NGOs, resulting in the exclusion of intersectional sexual subaltern groups who do not fit the neoliberal ideals of professionalism and corporatisation. The language used within queer movements, often shaped by global discourses, has also created barriers. Terms like men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender, used to secure funding, privilege those with access to such terminology, leaving others marginalised. This centralisation of power persists today, exemplified in issues like advocating for same-sex marriage, which reflects homonormative ideals that reinforce existing class and caste structures. Meanwhile, critical issues – such as challenging the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 or advocating for horizontal reservations for transgender individuals – are sidelined. To address these disparities, this article suggests that a bottom-up approach in queer advocacy is necessary to advocate for the rights of intersectional sexual subalterns, with some emerging queer movements beginning to reflect these ideals. Further, there needs to be more focus on rural and subaltern queer practices and advocacy in addition to forging alliances with other social movements – such as those on caste, class, and disability – to create safer spaces and inclusive queer movements.
En este artículo nos interesa reflexionar sobre la representación testimonial de las migraciones infantiles y juveniles. Para ello partiremos de los textos no ficcionales Solito de Javier Zamora y de la colección de testimonios Solito, Solita: Crossing Borders with Youth Refugees from Central America, compilado por Steven Mayers y Jonathan Freedman. Consideramos que estos discursos representan múltiples niveles de transgresión por elegir narrativas íntimas y emotivas para la expresión testimonial y por centrarse en la experiencia de la niñez migrante en entornos predominantemente adultocéntricos. Finalmente, ahondamos en la complejidad que resulta hablar de la perspectiva infantil en testimonios que, si bien retoman o se centran en esta etapa, son enunciados desde la mirada adulta de las y los autores.
Este capítulo ofrece una reflexión teológica como motivación para caminar tras las huellas de Marcella Althaus-Reid y descubrir los principios disruptivos de la Teología queer/cuir latinoamericana. Entre tangos y música popular, evocaciones libertinas y relatos disidentes, consideraciones protésicas y herramientas de tránsito, este texto indecente señala algunas ideas revitalizadoras que manifiestan la necesidad de pensar y habitar el Sur Global de una manera queer/cuir/marica. La voz del Sur es poderosamente teológica y potencialmente revolucionaria.
Este capítulo oferece uma reflexão teológica como motivação para seguir os passos de Marcella Althaus-Reid e descobrir os princípios disruptivos da teologia queer/cuir latino-americana. Entre tangos e música popular, evocações libertinas e narrativas dissidentes, considerações protéticas e ferramentas de trânsito, esse texto indecente aponta para algumas ideias revitalizantes que manifestam a necessidade de pensar e habitar o Sul Global de uma forma queer [cuir/marica]. A voz do Sul é poderosamente teológica e potencialmente revolucionária.
This theological reflection is a motivation to walk in the footsteps of Marcella Althaus-Reid to discover the disruptive principles of Latin American Queer Theology. Between tangos and popular music, libertine evocations and dissident stories, prosthetic considerations, and transit tools, this indecent text indicates some revitalizing ideas that manifest the need to think and inhabit the Global South queerly [cuirmente/ maricamente]. The voice of the South is powerfully theological and potentially revolutionary.
Cette réflexion théologique est une motivation pour marcher sur les traces de Marcella Althaus-Reid afin de découvrir les principes perturbateurs de la Queer Theology Latino-américaine. Entre tangos et musique populaire, évocations libertines et histoires dissidentes, considérations prothétiques et outils de transit, ce texte indécent indique quelques idées revitalisantes qui manifestent le besoin de penser et d'chabiter le Sud global d’une manière queer [cuir/marica]. La voix du Sud est puissamment théologique et potentiellement révolutionnaire.
This chapter, “The cinepoetry of Shirin Neshat’s Women Without Men: Female histories and the cinematic women’s space of the Garden,” provides an analysis of Shirin Neshat’s film Women Without Men (2009), which returns to one of the most critical episodes of Iranian history:—the British-American staged coup of 1953 against the democratic government of Mohammad Mosaddegh to reinstall the Shah. Drawing on postcolonial feminist discourse and the feminism of sexual difference, this chapter argues that Neshat places emphasis on the renewal of past as a site of resistance against patriarchal and imperialist ideologies. Before embarking on a detailed analysis of the film, the chapter provides a brief background of Neshat’s artistic career, since many of the narrative and stylistic hallmarks of her work, especially those related to her own identity positions, feature prominently in Women Without Men. The second part of the chapter focuses on how women re-inscribe their histories into an official history from which they have traditionally been excluded. The chapter then moves onto the film’s gendered construction of space, particularly Neshat’s reclaiming of the trope of the Persian garden as a cinematic and female place, located outside of the violent masculine-dominated world of Tehran in the midst of political crisis. My reading of this space connects two central threads of this book: intercultural subjectivities or spaces, and the issues of gender and women’s creative expression. By adopting Luce Irigaray’s concept of self-defined female subjectivity and enunciation, I contend that the Garden not only alludes to the liminality of Neshat’s own intercultural subject position, but also functions as a visual representation of the process of women’s becoming-subject on their own terms outside of the restrictive confines of patriarchal discourse.
Subaltern studies address postcolonial notions, binary oppositions, and power structures, enabling us to perceive history from an oppressed perspective. Similarly, subaltern geopolitics challenges the traditional narratives that often present the interest of the dominant community and omit the marginalised history. It provides perspectives of the dominant group with geographical imaginaries. This article aims to trace hegemony and power structures with geographical imaginaries through the theoretical framework of subaltern geopolitics in Mahaswetha Devi’s Chotti Munda and his Arrow (2018), translated by Gayatri Chakravarti Spivak. Munda tribes are connected to the land, and the acquisition of land played a pivotal role in the domination and subjugation of the natives. With the subaltern geopolitics, the process of imperialism against the Tribal community during and after the colonisation is studied. Through the lens of hegemony, the cultural exploitation of tribal communities is analysed. It also focuses on the power structure in terms of political and economic structures and elucidates the resistance of the Munda tribal community. The paper identifies three hegemonic power structures that existed during the colonial period, after the colonial period, and in the contemporary period. The article investigates the power structures imposed on Munda tribes through the ownership of the lands and the tribes’ resistance, irrespective of government. The paper brings out the significance of resistance and the importance of land in the lives of tribal people. It concludes that resistance against the authorities is the only means of their survival.
This chapter introduces the four key aspects of the book: (1) the Cold Rush, understood as the accelerated race for extraction and protection of Arctic Natural resources; (2) the key theoretical concepts, including assemblage, rhizome, and discourse; (3) the Finnish Arctic region, which simultaneously is part of the indigenous Sámiland, the global circumpolar region, and a periphery for the State of Finland, and (4) ethics and politics of writing this book.
In this interview, Afghan women’s rights activist Bibi Jamila Sadat chronicles her approaches to emancipatory politics and to her experience of fostering kinship networks. She weaves this into a biographical account that encompasses her university training in disaster management, her family’s multiple migrations from Afghanistan to Pakistan and back, and her work as a women’s rights activist. Throughout, Sadat emphasizes how various crises—from natural disasters to the everyday catastrophe of violent patriarchy—require close attention to women’s perspectives and plights, and how technological affordances can mitigate these. This interview ends with Sadat’s mediation of her current situation in exile and the continuation of her activist work.
Infrastructure can make or break a farm’s economic viability. Farmers’ ownership and ability to invest in infrastructure is often arranged through the family farm model, where farmers are typically married to their business partners. In this paper, we analyze the implications of organizing infrastructure access through the family farm model. Through interviews with 66 farmers and key informants in New England, U.S., we identify a treadmill of infrastructure accumulation for farmers with family capital and a treadmill of high labor and low profitability for farmers without the family capital to acquire needed infrastructure. Infrastructure accumulation in the family farm model builds farms that are difficult to adapt to new systems and markets, challenging to retire from without selling to developers, and hard for beginning farmers to afford. The economic tendencies of organizing infrastructure through the family farm model can make it difficult for farmers of all social backgrounds to access farmland and infrastructure. Moreover, continued inequities in family wealth and wages, credit access, and social capital means that the family farm model systematically disadvantages farmers of color, LGBTQ + farmers, limited resource, and women farmers. We argue that infrastructure accumulation through the family farm model is a process that intensifies inequities in farm viability, exacerbates the challenges of transitioning farms to new farmers and ways of farming, and fuels land injustice.
“Food sovereignty,” a term conceived by peasant agriculturalists in South America, has become ubiquitous worldwide in academic and activist circles advocating for greater local control over local food. Its use has been adopted by various actors in North America, most notably by agriculturalists that tend to be small-scale, family-run, or permaculture focussed. While Indigenous food sovereignty has emerged as an adaptation of this concept, ecological, economic, social, and political opportunities and constraints in different locations across Turtle Island make its widespread application challenging, especially in contexts where communities do not want, or cannot (for a variety of reasons) eat exclusively from the land. In addition, “food sovereignty” can become a chimera in contexts where the “Crown” has absolute and final “sovereignty” over the land, which they have demonstrated through multiple enforcements across Turtle Island. Using a decolonial feminist lens within a political ecology community of practice, this paper describes and critiques current and historic framings of northern Ontario boreal forests as variously and simultaneously scarce and abundant. It also analyzes the ways that these framings have been discursively and materially constructed through colonial social, ecological, economic, and political impositions. It asks whether the concept of food sovereignty adequately challenges these constructions. Ultimately, this paper suggests that thinking about Indigenous food sovereignty as sovereignty of and through food may better describe the process, importance, and potential inherent in traditional and alternative Indigenous food harvesting and distribution practices in First Nations communities in northern Ontario, and indeed, beyond.
In Colombia, the indigenous people are recognized as a special population and can establish self-governance regulations in their territories. Although this provision materialized with the Constitution of 1991, the spread of globalization and dynamics of domination around the world have created neocolonial challenges for native peoples. Such is the case of the indigenous reservations of Cañamomo Lomaprieta, which have experienced impositions when introducing their agricultural practices. These
Ableism, the bias against individuals with disabilities or mental disorders, remains a relatively unfamiliar concept within the Brazilian context. Also, neurodivergent criteria are not clearly defined, which reflects in a diagnosis culture, on the one hand, and a weakening of the neurodiversity perspective, on the other. This article used a documentary-based research aimed at making a cultural analysis to elucidate the historical trajectory of the Neurodiversity Movement in Brazil through the lens of cultural contingency analysis, which culminated in a cultural intervention proposal. Results indicated two relevant historical junctures: (1) the emergence of the activism movement, marked by parents of autistic children appealing through media by sent letters to garner support—considered a cultural cusp; and (2) the ascent of self-advocacy within the neurodiversity movement, with autistic individuals assuming central roles in this societal paradigm shift. Drawing on this historical analysis and guided by an intersectional outlook, we introduce the Pacto pela Neurodiversidade (Pledge for Neurodiversity), composed by ten actions aimed against ableism. This article underscores the significance of interventions that, instead of coercing individuals to conform to an ableist societal framework, emphasize cultural changing grounded in the principles of cultural contingency analysis.
This study aims to analyse the representation of Zainichi as Subalterns
in Min Jin Lee's Pachinko. The subject of the subalterns is the Korean
diaspora, who are struggling against oppression, marginalization, and
discrimination in Japanese society. The researcher uses descriptive and
qualitative research methods, while Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak's
subaltern theory has been applied to the selected text. The data will be
taken from many aspects such as dialogues, depiction of the situation
or event, characters, etc. This study analysed two problems: (1) How is
the representation of Zainichi as Subalterns in Min Jin Lee's Pachinko?
(2) How is the subaltern resisting the impact of subalternity in Min Jin
Lee's Pachinko? First, the results of this study reveal that the form of
discrimination and marginalization experienced by Zainichi are
indicative of the existence of subalternity in Japan, which was
represented in the Pachinko written by Min Jin Lee. Secondly, this
research reveals that hybridity and ethical politics became Zainichi's
way of speaking out as a form of resistance to subalternity. Moreover,
the Korean diaspora and their descendants represented the subalterns in
Pachinko. At the same time, women are considered inferior to men and
people who have ideologies and beliefs that are different from Japanese
ideology. This study is fascinating because subaltern issues exist long
after the postcolonial period.
The purpose of this essay is to investigate the construction of sexuality in Swedish school libraries through the lens of Foucault’s concept of power/knowledge. Five libraries were investigated, using two kinds of method: discourse analysis of titles, classification codes and subject headings of sex education materials, and qualitative interviews with librarians working at each of the libraries. Most sex education materials were classified within the medicine section, illustrating the continued authority of medical discourse in matters concerning sexuality. Books for younger audiences were often written for either boys or girls, reproducing a binary understanding of gender. Most library collections had a larger number of books written for girls, indicating that girls’ sexualities are subjected to a higher degree of discipline compared to boys’. Collections illustrated two combating discourses about female sexuality, one focusing on problematic aspects of sexuality such as rape and sexual abuse, the other constructing female sexuality as connected to lust and pleasure. Sex and love were constructed as intrinsically linked though the frequent use of the word “love” in titles and the concurrence of the subject heading “love” with “sex” or “sexuality”. Indexation patterns made LGBTQ-people stand out as exceptions to the heterosexual norm. Informants had differing views on what they thought should be part of their libraries’ sex education materials. Some mentioned a range of different subjects; others emphasized the need for “basic” books. When asked what materials they would not purchase informants mentioned pornographic, racist, violent and otherwise “offensive” materials. Most informants did not actively promote the libraries’ collections of sex education materials apart from signposting certain books. Regardless of the level of cooperation between teachers and librarians none of the informants had ever participated in the schools’ sex education classes. This is a two years master’s thesis in Archive, Library and Museum Studies.
Tunisia has a middling rank on the Academic Freedom Index and, in 2017, a Tunisian University Charter was created. Despite that, many symptoms show the withering of academic freedom. This paper proposes a psychoanalytical reading within a multifactorial hostility to the implementation of academic freedom in Tunisia. I present this account from my own trial by fire as a Tunisian woman, academic and researcher in a scientifically “peripheral” country struggling with what I call “the epistemology of Procrustes’s bed”. A holistic understanding of the hindrances to academic freedom may contribute to its democratization and to ethical and equitable science.
When Jacques Chirac proclaimed that "Wearing a veil…is a sort of aggression," he was reflecting not only the French association of the veil with radical Islamism, but a history of racist attitudes towards Islam and the veil that was shaped by French colonialism in North Africa. This paper seeks to explore some of the reproductions and displacements of those attitudes to France's headscarf affair and burqa controversy. It also aims to draw some analogies between Muslims and the veil during the colonial era and present-day France, as well as point out some inconsistencies in the arguments favoring the headscarf and (proposed) burqa bans. By drawing analogies to the colonial era and exploring propagations of colonial attitudes to the veil, we characterized the headscarf ban-and by extension, the burqa ban-as a modern-day civilizing mission directed towards France's Muslim population. KETWORDS: Burqa, French headscarf, burqa affairs, wearing veil is a sort of aggression.
Abstract: Epics and myths continue to exert a phenomenal impact on the literary landscape, linguistic
charter, and cultural traditions of the world today. These works hailed as classical and sublime, serve as the
cornerstones for neoteric renderings with their own contexts. The trend of retelling or revisioning classical,
canonical themes or familiar mythical tale tropes has been a longstanding and enduring literary
phenomenon. This trend has dealt with the epics of the east and west with prodigious zeal and the works
have been lauded and celebrated in the recent decade of the twenty-first century, especially those with a
feminist or female centered perspective. The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni is a retelling
of the oriental epic The Mahabharata through the eyes of Draupadi, the enigmatic Pandava queen. Circe
by Madeline Miller is a retelling of the occidental epic The Odyssey through the life of Circe. This paper
aims to explore the representation of gender and social status through the feminist portrayals and narratives
in the works chosen and their significance. This paper also seeks to exhibit the parallels between both the
representations from the East and the West through a comparative study.
Keywords: Feminist Retelling, Epics, Circe, The Palace of Illusions, Odyssey, Mahabharata
This article takes a linguistic approach to the construction of group identities in relation to climate imaginaries, which condition what climate futures are considered possible. It employs social identity theory along with methods from Sociolinguistics and Discourse Linguistics to analyse patterns of positioning and stance-taking in social media discourse (Twitter/X, Instagram). By identifying typical multimodal practices at a micro level, as well as introducing five functional meta categories (›awareness, advice, and agitation‹, ›ritualised appreciation‹, ›solidarity and allyship, ›voice and advocacy‹, and ›community demarcation‹), the research investigates how digital discourse reflects and shapes group identities related to climate change topics. It thereby offers insights into the role of language in co-producing climate imaginaries in digitally shared environments.
In this article, I analyze instances of Ukrainian poetry written between Taras Ševčenko’s death and the establishment of modernism that deal with the theme of the precarity of Ukrainian literature as a consequence of the lack of a Ukrainian nation in those times. On the basis of examples drawn from the works of Pantelejmon Kuliš, Lesja Ukrajinka, Mychajlo Staryc’kyj, Borys Hrinčenko, Volodymyr Samijlenko, Volodymyr Šaškevyč, and Ivan Franko, I aim to show how Ukrainian poets of the second half of the 19th century tended to imagine the Ukrainian community as belonging to the past and/or the future, while its presence and its agency in the present are made impossible by imperial subjugation, hence making communication, including literary, impossible or powerless. In the final part of my article, I also reflect on the complex nexus between aesthetic judgment and the re-evaluation of Ukrainian literary history.
In this introduction to the JEMS collective volume Subaltern Writing and Popular Memory in the Early Modern World, the editors provide a historiographical and theoretical survey on the history of subaltern forms of literacy, as well as of popular modes of remembrance, mainly focused in the early modern period. While providing examples of the ways in which literacy has been carefully policed in different societies, giving way to structures of exclusion, it also points to the more or less fluid relation that common men and women from different backgrounds established with writing, occasionally using it to record personal memory and participate in the collective shaping of the past. The essay tackles the difficulty of recovering the written traces of common men and women, while surveying the ways in which this archive of subaltern writing and memory has been creatively constructed by subsequent scholarly interventions from very different disciplines, including anthropology, paleography, sociology, epigraphy, gender and sexuality studies, and social and cultural history.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any references for this publication.