Attending to the subaltern is necessary despite unavoidably erring
Evidence
The reason why I learned something from Subaltern Studies^ and what they do is much more complicated than what I do, was that I saw that they were trying to attend to the subaltern when all the texts that were available were from the other side. So, in a sense, my text is also a text from the other side. What would be the alternative? The alternative would be to privilege the unexamined mode of catching living subalterns for the international book trade—unexamined mode, hmm? Subaltern history then would fall within that unrealistic notion of parliamentary representation—unrealistic and incomplete because parliamentary representation at least involves “working for.” And, so, nobody would do anything. And therefore, the alternative of not attending to the subaltern past with all of its difficulties would be not to attend to it at all. So, to an extent, yes, it is necessary to learn how to attend. And you make mistakes. Big deal. — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader, 2429
Categorization
- XREF: Engages the recurring ‘…subaltern speak/read’ complaint and the Foucauldian/Deleuzian critique — Spivak concedes the readerly complicity while defending attentive failure. — connects to: Working for the subaltern means their insertion into citizenship and loss of subaltern space — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader: Selected Works of…, 2430; Subaltern consciousness is irreducible and nonoriginary, impossible to fully recover — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader: Selected Works of…, 1751; Denied the chance to speak, the subaltern strains hard to gain that voice — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 845 (+1 more)
Broader Connections
- Subaltern consciousness is irreducible and nonoriginary, impossible to fully recover
#corroborates(0.90) — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader, 1751 - Denied the chance to speak, the subaltern strains hard to gain that voice
#expands(0.85) — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 845 - Subaltern consciousness claims fail if female subaltern consciousness is ignored.
#qualifies(0.80) — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader, 1833