Essentializing is unavoidable even in anti-essentialist critique, so it should be deployed consciously.
Evidence
Spivak :* You see, you are committed to these concepts, whether you acknowledge it or not. I think it’s absolutely on target not to be rhetorically committed to it and I think it’s absolutely on target to take a stand against the discourses of essentialism, universalism as it comes in terms of the universal - of classical German philosophy or the universal as the white upper class rnal~ … etc. But strategically we canr~ot. Even as we talk about feminist practice, or privileging practice over theory, we are universalising - not only generalising but universalising. — Elizabeth Grosz, Criticism, Feminism and the Institution, 125
Categorization
- DEFINE: Captures the original sense of strategic essentialism: not a choice to adopt essentialism as identity, but an acceptance that essentializing is irreducible and hence best used deliberately rather than repudiated.
- XREF: Shows Spivak grounding the term in the Levinasian ‘onto-phenomenological question’ and the critique of ‘classical German philosophy’—relevant to the reader’s tracing from Foucault’s counter-history. — connects to: One cannot not be an essentialist to some degree, even in critique. — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader: Selected Works of…, 55; A critique of essentialism must remain internal to essentialism. — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader: Selected Works of…, 55; Essentialist-sounding definitions can be adopted provisionally without belief in essence — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader: Selected Works of…, 453 (+1 more)
Related
- Essentialism used strategically remains hostage to the irreducible essentializing moment it criticizes. (similarity 0.89)
- A critique of essentialism must remain internal to essentialism. (similarity 0.88)
- One cannot not be an essentialist to some degree, even in critique. (similarity 0.88)
- Strategic essentialism meant reusing hegemonic universals, not repudiating them. (similarity 0.87)
- Essentialist-sounding definitions can be adopted provisionally without belief in essence (similarity 0.85)
- The essentializing moment that criticism attacks is itself irreducible. (similarity 0.83)
- Universalization is an irreducible moment in any discourse. (similarity 0.82)
- Strategic essentialism is only ever a temporary, situation-specific deployment, never a settled stance. (similarity 0.82)
- Elizabeth Grosz — Criticism, Feminism and the Institution An Interview with Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (similarity 0.81)
- Critiques of essentialism that target only the marginalized reinforce existing domination. (similarity 0.79)
Broader Connections
- One cannot not be an essentialist to some degree, even in critique.
#corroborates(0.97) — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader, 55 - A critique of essentialism must remain internal to essentialism.
#corroborates(0.85) — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader, 55 - Essentialist-sounding definitions can be adopted provisionally without belief in essence
#expands(0.80) — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader, 453 - Essentialism used strategically remains hostage to the irreducible essentializing moment it criticizes.
#expands(0.75) — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader, 1762