Practice question · Multiple choice
Why does Spivak answer "can the subaltern speak?" largely in the negative?
Hints
- The claim is structural, not about muteness or capacity.
- Think about the petition, the court, the monograph, who made those forms?
Show the answer
C. To be heard one must use forms constituted by the power being resisted
Why
Translate into terms the archive can hold and something essential is lost; refuse and the archive holds nothing. Even the sympathetic historian recovering the voice is speaking for, political representation hiding inside descriptive representation.
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