Collective subaltern politics makes the questioner-respondent relation indeterminate

Evidence

If this position can raise a “why do you fly from me?” toward the subaltern separated from the feminist, then the feminist might, just might, ventriloquize the “fly from me” toward the Narcissus-face, both the self-knowing Ovidian and the deluded Freudian. In fact, the subaltern herself is also sometimes caught in the desire for Narcissus and the “fly from me” gesture, on another level. Once there is an effort to engage in the politics of subalternity-on-the-move, who questions and who answers “fly from me” is not at all clear. The only thing we know is that “be like me, be my image” can never be on the agenda, from either side. — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader, 1507

Categorization

• XREF: Directly answers the reader’s question about whether ironic/strategic identity is available collectively or only to individual subjects: Spivak says once engaged collectively, who questions and who answers is not at all clear. — connects to: Membership questions structure all other political judgments and resist analytical resolution. — Douglas A. Kysar, Regulating from Nowhere: Environmental…, 461
• SEED: Angle for an essay: Echo’s model of response as the diagram for how subaltern groups can engage identity politics without demanding ‘be like me’ from either side.