Survivor Discourse: A Narrative Analysis

What struck me about this week’s readings was the relationship between ethnographic voices via locale (in all its various meanings) and positionality. I am glad these were specifically ordered, as Linda Alcoff’s questions – who should be speaking for whom? Are ethnographers always the best interpreters? Should the insider authority of the subaltern always be assumed? What kind of violence is being done through this kind of professional/privileged ethnographic interpretation? And what kind of work is needed to disrupt it? – became an excellent entry into the discussion. The chapters regarding Survivor Discourse referred back to many of these questions and underlying points, especially in considering how commercialized Naples infers Rape Survivor testimony to have become. (I am not …show more content…
Isn’t that what the application of various theories or quantitative understandings convey? That I (as a degree-holder) now have various analytic methods that allow me to describe an ontological truth unavailable to those who haven’t dedicated time (and money) in a university setting – even if they compose the ‘target populations’ I am investigating? Naples’ “Survivors Going Public” chapter clearly reveals how illusory that privileged academic voice can be, especially in terms of” generating egalitarian feminist participatory research strategies” (192). There is a captivating (if not hypnotic) glamor bestowed upon degree holders. I am thankful for the intervention of awareness regarding location and positionality that various feminist epistemologies – feminist anthropology, feminist Sociology, Women’s & Gender Studies - have given