Re: 2ND THOUGHTS

Katherine Brown (kbrown who-is-at weber.ucsd.edu)
Wed, 7 Apr 1999 13:26:28 -0700 (PDT)

Alrighty, lets chock up for our first topic the notion of subjectivity
in AT and feminist theories (maybe of agency or subject and objectification...)
I recall, that terms and categories/levels get confusing--like for example
when you start with a phrase like "the object of an activity is its true
motive.."(Leont'ev) and you look for the motive and problem space drawing a sub-
jectivity into contact with it...you have to say, wait, is this a unified
subject, all-agent? What if one's object is a subordinated subject (one has
objectified another, made it/her/him into a target for action, the gaze,
consumption...) you start to get lost in terminology pretty quickly.
I wonder if maybe one might start with some cases, some data, some questions
and say, now, what would these theoretical and methodological tools do for
us here in understanding what's happening? What questions can we ask or
not imagine with one set of discourses that we can with another? And are we
sure? Lets try and see.
I like your suggestion of Brener --she goes in the folder.
KB