Intercultural Disidentifications in Theory, and in Poetic and Theatrical Practice
Grzegorz Welizarowicz (University of Gdańsk)
Taking Chicano poet Tino Villanueva’s collection Scene from the Movie GIANT (1993) as an opening example the essay looks at the strategies available to a subject at a moment of an unequal intercultural encounter, that is when the discourse of the dominant culture is experienced as exploitation or exclusion. Building on Louis Althusser’s theory of Ideological State Apparatuses (ISA) and on Michel Pêcheux’s linguistic reading of ISA as discursive formations it is proposed that Villanueva’s poetry exemplifi es a type of relationship of a subject to the dominant formation which Pêcheux calls “Disidentifi cation”. Pêcheux’s theory of subjecthood is discussed in detail. It is then applied in an interpretation of two excerpts from Chicana performer/dramatist Monica Palacios’ oeuvre. The essay concludes with a proposition that “disidentifi cations” offer an important tool of maintaining a fl uid and ambivalent type of subjectivity in the times of the „death of the subject” and intercultural crises. Disidentifi catory practices, by reworking our epistemic certainties, may lead the way in building sustainable pluralistic humanism.
The full version of this article is available in Polish in the printed version of Tekstualia and in the on-line subscription.
The sample of Polish version of this article is available here: http://tekstualia.pl/index.php/pl/nasze-numery/295-4-51-2017/artykuly/1468-miedzykulturowe-dyzidentyfikacje-w-teorii-i-praktyce-poetyckiej-oraz-teatralnej
