Abstract:
This essay aims to employ a deconstructive
understanding of identity and representation in order to identify what an ethical approach
to representation should look like, especially with regard to the empowerment of minority
and marginalized groups. I turn to Gayatri Spivak and Jacques Derrida who provide the
framework for my scope of inquiry. In “Can the Subaltern Speak?” Spivak problematizes the
aim of postcolonialism to constitute a postcolonial identity by giving voice to indigenous
cultural narratives that counteract dominating Western imperialist ideologies. The problem
with this aim lies in its tenuous commitment to a stable, persistent ‘truth’ of identity
that can be understood apart from context, which, according to Spivak, results in the
failure to recognize how the “epistemic violence” of imperialism has obstructed the
subaltern subject’s ability to both speak and be heard. To justify Spivak’s concerns, I will
look to her foundation in Derridean deconstructive analysis, which is built upon the premise
that all meaning resides in the unstable relations between signifiers, rather than a fixed
referent. With her Derridean background, Spivak advocates for strategic essentialism as a
way for marginalized groups to achieve discursive power. Due to well-known dangers of
essentialism that are highlighted by a deconstructive lens, however, I argue for a
representational approach that goes beyond essentialism and seeks to produce an illimitable
subjectivity by allowing room for change and possibility. With this goal in mind, I then
offer potential strategies for the empowerment of minority and marginalized
groups.
