>On Mon, 17 Jul 2000, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>
> > Spivak, however, used to argue that trapped between the rock and hard
> > places "the subaltern [e.g. poor women in poor nations] cannot speak"
> > (I don't know if she's still committed to this statement).
>
>No, no, this was one of those rhetorical flourishes, kind of the 3rd world
>equivalent of Adorno's quip, "To write poetry after Auschwitz is
>barbaric".
Yes, what she mainly means is (1) representation (e.g. speaking for others) won't disappear; and (2) "The subaltern as female cannot be heard or read" within the narrow terms of patriarchal nationalism & Western liberalism. I agree with Spivak on (1) & (2), but she put it rather misleadingly in a way that casts doubt on the "subaltern's" ability to ever learn & use a revolutionary discourse (such as Marxism-Feminism) on her own behalf, instead of waiting for smart critics like Spivak to come along and represent her.
Yoshie