Being a partial subject means agency exists without full authorship

Evidence

In an important sense the actor is a part subject; her actions are not fully her own. That she is not the author of the story doesn’t mean that she is therefore its passive object. — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 367

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces ‘part subject’ — a concept of agency that sits between full authorship and passive objecthood.
• DEEPTHINKING: The ‘part subject’ is a genuinely paradigm-shifting concept: agency as neither full authorship nor passivity, applicable well beyond acting.