The voice of the subaltern In Geographies of Post colonialism (2008), Joanne Sharp developed Spivak's line of reasoning that Western intellectuals displace to the margin of intellectual discourse the non–Western forms of "knowing" by re-formulating, and thus intellectually diminishing, such forms of acquiring knowledge as myth and folklore. To be heard and to be known, the subaltern native must adopt Western ways of knowing (language, thought, reasoning); because of such Westernization, a subaltern people can never express their native ways of knowing, and, instead, must conform their native expression of knowledge to the Western, colonial ways of knowing the world.Sharp, Joanne Geographies of Postcolonialism, Chapter 6: Can the Subaltern Speak? SAGE Publications, 2008, p. 000. The subordinated native can be heard by the colonisers only by speaking the language of their empire; thus, intellectual and cultural filters of conformity muddle the true voice of the subaltern native. For example, in Colonial Latin America, the subordinated natives conformed to the colonial culture, and used the linguistic filters of religion and servitude when addressing their Spanish imperial rulers. To make effective appeals to the Spanish Crown, slaves and natives would address the rulers in ways that masked their own, native ways of speaking. Engaging the Subaltern's voice: the philosopher and theorist Gayatri Spivak at Goldsmiths, University of London . The historian Fernando Coronil said that his goal as an investigator must be "to listen to the subaltern subjects, and to interpret what I hear, and to engage them and interact with their voices. We cannot ascend to a position of dominance over the voice, subjugating its words to the meanings we desire to attribute to them. That is simply another form of discrimination. The power to narrate somebody's story is a heavy task, and we must be cautious and aware of the complications involved." Like Spivak, bell hooks questions the academic's engagement with the non–Western Other. That in order to truly communicate with the subaltern native, the academic would have to remove him or herself as "the expert" at the center of the Us-and-Them binary social relation. Traditionally, the academic wants to learn of the subaltern native's experiences of colonialism, but does not want to know the subaltern's (own) explanation of his or her experiences of colonial domination. In light of the mechanics of Western knowledge, hooks said that a true explanation can come only from the expertise of the Western academic, thus, the subaltern native surrenders knowledge of colonialism to the investigating academic. About the binary relationship of investigation, between the academic and the subaltern native, hooks said that:
The voice of the subaltern In Geographies of Post colonialism (2008), Joanne Sharp developed Spivak's line of reasoning that Western intellectuals displace to the margin of intellectual discourse the non–Western forms of "knowing" by re-formulating, and thus intellectually diminishing, such forms of acquiring knowledge as myth and folklore. To be heard and to be known, the subaltern native must adopt Western ways of knowing (language, thought, reasoning); because of such Westernization, a subaltern people can never express their native ways of knowing, and, instead, must conform their native expression of knowledge to the Western, colonial ways of knowing the world.Sharp, Joanne Geographies of Postcolonialism, Chapter 6: Can the Subaltern Speak? SAGE Publications, 2008, p. 000. The subordinated native can be heard by the colonisers only by speaking the language of their empire; thus, intellectual and cultural filters of conformity muddle the true voice of the subaltern native. For example, in Colonial Latin America, the subordinated natives conformed to the colonial culture, and used the linguistic filters of religion and servitude when addressing their Spanish imperial rulers. To make effective appeals to the Spanish Crown, slaves and natives would address the rulers in ways that masked their own, native ways of speaking. Indian philosopher and theorist Gayatri Spivak , seen here giving a speech at the Internationaler Kongress in Berlin . The historian Fernando Coronil said that his goal as an investigator must be "to listen to the subaltern subjects, and to interpret what I hear, and to engage them and interact with their voices. We cannot ascend to a position of dominance over the voice, subjugating its words to the meanings we desire to attribute to them. That is simply another form of discrimination. The power to narrate somebody's story is a heavy task, and we must be cautious and aware of the complications involved." Like Spivak, bell hooks questions the academic's engagement with the non–Western Other. That in order to truly communicate with the subaltern native, the academic would have to remove him or herself as "the expert" at the center of the Us-and-Them binary social relation. Traditionally, the academic wants to learn of the subaltern native's experiences of colonialism, but does not want to know the subaltern's (own) explanation of his or her experiences of colonial domination. In light of the mechanics of Western knowledge, hooks said that a true explanation can come only from the expertise of the Western academic, thus, the subaltern native surrenders knowledge of colonialism to the investigating academic. About the binary relationship of investigation, between the academic and the subaltern native, hooks said that:
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Engaging the Subaltern's voice: the
Indian
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at Goldsmiths, University of London
, seen here giving a speech at the Internationaler Kongress in Berlin