From “Heterogeneity, Hybridity, Multiplicity: Marking Asian American Differences” by Lisa Lowe.
Across all four readings, the trending juxtaposition of
difference, otherness, and marginality beside unity, “centres,” and strategic
essentialism was enlightening, but it started to feel overdetermined and,
frankly, overwhelming. On its own, each piece made a lot of sense, but the
comingling of definitions (Hall’s view of ‘ethnicity’ compared to Julien and
Mercer’s) and interpretations of scholars like Spivak (Lowe’s interpretation of
strategic essentialism compared to Spivak’s) made it hard to grasp firm
takeaways. (Still not sure that Lowe interprets Spivak the way Spivak interprets
herself; Spivak has continued to revise SE as a term because of misappropriation
by scholars.) Honestly, I’d really appreciate it if we could take some time as
a class to bring these readings into conversation—where do they intersect,
where do they depart, where do they contradict, in the event that they do?
Of the four readings, I especially enjoyed Lisa Lowe’s
discussion of strategic essentialism vis-à-vis the phrase ‘Asian Americans.’ Strategic
essentialism as a theory is notoriously slippery to employ satisfactorily these
days, and its use is contested—by its coiner, no
less. In interviews, Spivak has spoken about the misappropriation of the theory
as a carte blanche to revert to simple essentialism (strategic being the most
important part of the phrase), and Spivak admits that she no longer uses the term.
Question: I think Lowe appropriately appropriates
strategic essentialism, but what does she urge readers to do with this strategic framework,
besides asking us to acknowledge it as such? In the final line of her conclusion, Lowe
writes, “In the 1990s, we can diversify our political practices to include a
more heterogenous group and to enable crucial alliances with other groups…in
the ongoing work of transforming hegemony” (40). In the realm of praxis, what does this work look like
on the ground? How do we practice strategic essentialism in the theater of
cultural studies? (Gender, sexuality, and queer studies have utilized it in
really concrete ways.)
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