Description
Book SynopsisA theoretical attempt to grapple with the writings of women of color. It is suitable for those who are struggling to understand voices and experiences of those 'we' label 'other'.
Trade Review" ... methodologically innovative ... precise and perceptive and conscious ... " Text and Performance Quarterly "Woman, Native, Other is located at the juncture of a number of different fields and disciplines, and it genuinely succeeds in pushing the boundaries of these disciplines further. It is one of the very few theoretical attempts to grapple with the writings of women of color." Chandra Talpade Mohanty "The idea of Trinh T. Minh-ha is as powerful as her films ... formidable ..." Village Voice " ... its very forms invite the reader to participate in the effort to understand how language structures lived possibilities." Artpaper "Highly recommended for anyone struggling to understand voices and experiences of those 'we' label 'other'." Religious Studies Review
Table of ContentsThe Story Began Long Ago.....
I. Commitment from the Mirror-Writing Box
The triple bind
Silence in time
Rites of passage
The Guilt
Freedom and the masses
For the people, by the people, and from the people
Vertically imposed language: on clarity, craftsmanship, and She who steals language
A sketched window on the world
The infinite play of empty mirrors
Writing woman
II. The Language of Nativism: Anthropology as a Scientific Conversation of Man with Man
The reign of worn codes
The positivist dream: We, the natives; They, the natives
A Western Science of man
A Myth of mythology
What "man" and which "man"?
Gossip and science: a conversation on what I love according to truth
Nativist interpretation
See them as they see each other
III. Difference: "A Special Third World Women Issue"
The Policy of "separate development"
The Sense of specialness
The question of roots and authenticity
Infinite Layer: I am not i can be you and me
The female identity enclosure
Third World?
"Woman" and the subtle power of linguistic exclusion
Subject-in-the-making
Ethnicity or womanhood: whose duality?
The Gender controversy
IV. Grandma's Story
Truth and fact: story and history
Keepers and transmitters
Storytelling in the "civilized" context
A regenerating force
At once "black" and "white" magic
The woman warrior: she who breaks open the spell
A cure and a protection from illness
"Tell it the way they tell it"
"The story must be told. There must not be any lie"
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
