Subject-positions
From Geography
m (4 revisions) |
Revision as of 16:17, 9 October 2011
Subject-positions are constructed from discourses, which give them sense. The other way around, "discourses themselves construct the subject-positions from which they become meaningful and have effects" (Hall, 1997, p. 56). So discourses and their subject-positions are intimately related to each other and one could say that they make each other possible. Next to this, Hall (1997) says the following important thing about subject-positions: "Individuals may differ as to their social class, gendered, 'racial and ethnic characteristics (among other factors), but they will not be able to take meaning until they have identified with those positions which the discourse constructs, subjected themselves to its rules, and hence become the subjects of its power/knowledge" (p. 56). In essence, every individual could be a 'subject' of a discourse in Michel Foucaults sense of it, but only those individuals which are able "to locate themselves (...) in the position from which the discourse makes most sense" are really able to reach this goal (Hall, 1997, p. 56).
Examples
Hall (1997) gives an example about masculine pornography. This kind of geography has men as subject-positions, because they are constructed by the discourse of masculine geography. Only if women try to look porn from a "'masculine' discursive position" (p. 56), they could come to the subject position of the "'desiring male voyeur'" (p. 56).
References
Hall, S (e.d.) (1997). Where is the subject? (pp.54-56). In: Representation: cultural representations and signifying practices. Open University, Milton Keynes.
Contributors
Page created by --JikkeVanTHof 21:16, 10 September 2011 (UTC)
