Fictional foundations and the politics of representation
Date
1994
Authors
Stewart, Cara Leigh
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Abstract
Using insights from poststructuralism, this thesis examines some of the dilemmas of thinking beyond the borders of particular identities in two areas of contemporary political debate and analysis. Specifically, dilemmas identified in the texts of Edward Said and standpoint feminism are treated as particular expressions of the more general problem of the way universality and particularity have been related under modern conditions.
Said and the theorists of standpoint feminism analyze the politics of representation to find ways that identities can be represented that do no produce relations of domination. This thesis argues that a basic paradox emerges: on the one hand each denies that there is any essential identity to be represented; on the other hand, the logic of representation demands that foundational categories must exist, otherwise the notion of representation would collapse. To fulfill this demand both Said and standpoint feminism create fictional foundations. Yet these fictional foundations produce further problems that undermine attempts to represent an identity that does not produce relations of domination: the foundational categories they create inevitably betray their historical and cultural specificities. Consequently relations of domination are reintroduced. In part, this is because it is assumed, in some cases implicitly, and in other cases explicitly, that it is possible to resolve the conflict between 'knowledge' and 'power'. However, as Foucault argues, there are no privileged categories, methodologies, positions, or speakers that can act as guarantor for any resolution to conflicts between knowledge and power.