Embodying Subaltern Memory: Kinesthesia & the Problematics of Gender & Race

Abstract

Ideology critiques that rely on notions of a subculture distinguishable by its place or identity or separation from a mainstream cannot capture the subversion of gender that is voguing because they almost inevitably require critique of negative images and replacement by positive images. Cultural imperialism is simultaneous with a deep recognition of the problems that gender and race also constitute for those in a position to define the terms of oppression. The ability to discern and perform difference in relation to the dominant forms constitutes both the memory of oppression and the repertoire for resistance that define, in part, the coherence of subaltern culture. Pierre Nora, in his introduction to his monumental and collaborative work on national memory in France, argues that, increasingly in the twentieth century, history seems to have accelerated and overtaken memory. MTV is an important new site tor the struggle over control of popular memory.