Date: Mon, 11 Dec 1995 15:19:21 -0500 (EST)
From: Radhika Gajjala <rxgst6+-AT-pitt.edu>
Subject: something more to chew on?
To: seminar-13-AT-jefferson.village.Virginia.EDU


Subject: nonessential subject - excerpt

here's an excerpt from Grewal's essay - but i suggest that anyone who's 
interested should read the whole essay before making up their minds about 
whether or not they "like" the notion...


" It is imperative for us to examine new forms of subjectivity that are 
radically different from this European imperialist and state-nationalis 
subject that is binarily constructed and essentialist. This new subject, 
following the critiques of individualism within feminism that have been 
powerfully argued by Gayatri Spivak and Norma Alarcon, does not share the 
position of the subject as individual (i.e. unitary and centered and 
created out of the binaries of SElf-Other, subject-object)that has been 
part of the Western philosophical tradition. Rather this new subject or 
"subject(s)", as Norma alacron calls them, is heterogenous as well as 
political, destroys binarism, and is inclusive. This subject provides a 
constant critique of nationalis and even insurgent agendas, of power 
relations that structure global economic flows, and will never be 
complete. For such a nonessential subject, difference would not be an 
obstacle to political praxis, since differences usually are taken to mean 
essentialist differences thatt are insurmountable for the formations of 
coalitions or for solidarity with various struggles.......

....Contrary to those who would like to believe that all postmodern 
subjectivities are similar in their difference, there are varied 
according to the locations and conditions of their emergence. A 
nonessentialist position does not imply a nonbelonging to a group, nor 
does it imply loss of agency or coalitions and solidarities. For some 
feminists of color, identity politics remains central, though the 
identity may be multiple.....

such identities are enabling becasue they provide a mobility in 
solidarity that leads to a transnaitonal participation in understanding 
and opposing multiple and global oppressions operating upon them; thatis, 
these subject positions enable oppositions in multiple locations. 
Multiple locations also enable valuable interventions precisely because 
the agendas of one group are brought along to interrogate and empower 
those of another group.

	Thus practice is not prohibited by apolitics of not belonging, as 
occurs with insider-outsider opposition....."



Radhika


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