Can Subject Speak?
Abstract
Why we ask the wrong questions and why we engage in circular reasoning in our debate on subjectivity are the questions I attempt to answer. By applying Greimasian narrative semiotics, I analyze the deep structure of subjectivity and apply the structure to trace the complex layers of subjectivity on which the postcolonial and postmodern critiques are founded. I argue that central to subjectivity is value, and the problem of subjectivity is not to define it but to locate power and desire that constitute the value. They are located in the triangle relationship between subject, object, and sender. The subject desires an object only when the sender creates value for the object. Problematizing and critiquing the position of the subject in the oppressive narrative, or asking who owns the narrative, are the gates to the labyrinth of irrelevant inquiries into subjectivity. This is the underlying reason for the failure of postmodern and postcolonial interventions, for they provide no solution to the ongoing oppression of marginal subjects. Agency and freedom are only myths constituted by the postmodern and postcolonial narratives. The subject is scandalous. It does not exist in its own narrative. The subject never speaks for itself. It is condemned to self-alienation.
Downloads
References
Althusser, Louis. 2014. “Ideology and Ideologial State Apparatuses (Notes towards an Investigation).” in Critical theory: A Reader, edited by D. Tallack. Routledge.
Barthes, Roland. 1977. Image, Music, Text. Fontana Press.
Benveniste, Emile. 1971. Problems in General Linguistics. Coral Gables, Fla: University of Miami Press.
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1990. The Logic of Practice. Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press.
Butler, Judith. 1993. Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of “Sex.” New York: Routledge.
Derrida, Jacques. 1982. Margins of Philosophy. University of Chicago Press.
Derrida, Jacques. 2016. Of Grammatology. JHU Press.
Descartes, René. 2008. Meditations on First Philosophy: With Selections from the Objections and Replies. OUP Oxford.
Greimas, A. J. 1971. “Narrative Grammar: Units and Levels.” MLN 86(6):793–806.
Greimas, A. J., J. Courtès, and Michael Rengstorf. 1976. “The Cognitive Dimension of Narrative Discourse.” New Literary History 7(3):433–47. doi: 10.2307/468554.
Greimas, Algirdas Julien. 1982. Semiotics and Language: An Analytical Dictionary. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Greimas, Algirdas Julien. 1983. Structural Semantics: An Attempt at a Method. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Greimas, Algirdas Julien. 1993. The Semiotics of Passions: From States of Affairs to States of Feeling. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Greimas, Algirdas Julien, Frank Collins, and Paul Perron. 1989. “The Veridiction Contract.” New Literary History 20(3):651–60. doi: 10.2307/469359.
Greimas, Algirdas Julien, Paul Perron, and Frank Collins. 1989. “On Meaning.” New Literary History 20(3):539–50. doi: 10.2307/469352.
Lacan, Jacques. 1977. Écrits: A Selection. New York: Norton.
Lee, Mi-Kyoung. 2005. Epistemology after Protagoras: Responses to Relativism in Plato, Aristotle, and Democritus. Oxford University Press.
Mahon, Michael. 1992. Foucault’s Nietzschean Genealogy: Truth, Power, and the Subject. Suny Press.
Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. 2002. Phenomenology of Perception. London: Routledge.
Norton, David Fate, and Mary J. Norton. 2007. David Hume: A Treatise of Human Nature: Volume 1: Texts. OUP Oxford.
Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. 2023. “Can the Subaltern Speak?” Pp. 171–219 in Imperialism. Routledge.
Sverdiolas, Arūnas. 2019. “Algirdas J. Greimas’s Egology.” Actes Sémiotiques 122.
Copyright (c) 2025 Umar Thamrin, Ridwan Ridwan
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
By submitting the article/manuscript of the article, the author(s) agree with this policy. No specific document sign-off is required.
License
The use of the article will be governed by the Creative Commons Attribution license as currently displayed on Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Author(s)' Warranties
The author warrants that the article is original, written by the stated author(s), has not been published before, contains no unlawful statements, does not infringe the rights of others, is subject to copyright that is vested exclusively in the author and free of any third party rights, and that any necessary written permissions to quote from other sources have been obtained by the author(s).
User/Public Rights
Under the Creative Commons license, users are allowed to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work. Users will also need to attribute authors on distributing works in the journal and other media of publications. Unless otherwise stated, the authors are public entities as soon as their articles got published.
Rights of Authors
Authors retain all their rights to the published works, such as (but not limited to) the following rights;
- Copyright and other proprietary rights relating to the article, such as patent rights,
- The right to use the substance of the article in own future works, including lectures and books,
- The right to reproduce the article for own purposes,
- The right to self-archive the article,
- The right to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the article's published version (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
Co-Authorship
If the article was jointly prepared by more than one author, any authors submitting the manuscript warrants that he/she has been authorized by all co-authors to be agreed on this copyright and license notice (agreement) on their behalf, and agrees to inform his/her co-authors of the terms of this policy. The journal will not be held liable for anything that may arise due to the author(s) internal dispute. The journal will only communicate with the corresponding author.
Royalties
Being an open accessed journal and disseminating articles for free under the Creative Commons license term mentioned, author(s) aware that the journal entitles the author(s) to no royalties or other fees.
Miscellaneous
The article will be published in the journal if the article’s editorial process is successfully completed. The editors may modify the article to a style of punctuation, spelling, capitalization, referencing, and usage that deems appropriate. The author acknowledges that the article may be published so that it will be publicly accessible and such access will be free of charge for the readers.
