Poststructuralist theory’s repudiation of stable subjects collapsed inquiry into futile conversation

Evidence

Power was universal and immutable; resistance could only be local; knowledge, even of Power, always partial. Affiliations could only be shifting and multiple; to speak of a stable subject position was ro chase the chimera of the ‘myth of origins’ In some American dilutions of this theory of the dispersal and fracturing of historical subjects, the idea of ‘inquiry’, which presumes the possibility of finding some believable truth, was to be replaced with the idea of’conversation’ which is by its nature inconclusive. — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 282

Categorization

• XREF: Connects directly to the reader’s research tracing Spivak’s strategic essentialism — the rejection of ‘stable subject position’ as chasing a ‘myth of origins’ is precisely the move Spivak’s strategy responds to and inverts. — connects to: Poststructuralist subject-dispersal theory in American dilution replaced inquiry with endless conversation; Collapsing theory into narrative destroys the critical distance rational critique requires — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism: A Marxist…, 371; The postmodern concept cannot be disproved because its voices are radically separated — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 799

Broader Connections

• Poststructuralist subject-dispersal theory in American dilution replaced inquiry with endless conversation #corroborates (0.95)
• Collapsing theory into narrative destroys the critical distance rational critique requires #corroborates (0.80) — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism, 371
• The postmodern concept cannot be disproved because its voices are radically separated #corroborates (0.72) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 799