producing subjectivities


From a poststructural perspective, human subjectivity is constituted through discourses – "realities" are produced through the language and social practices that frame one's meaning-making and notions of who they are. Discourses are neither unitary, static, nor equally powerful, however.


In fact, more often than not, they contradict one another, with those that are assumed normal (the most powerful ones in any given place and time) "winning out"  in the production of my subjectivity (in the poststructural sense), or my sense of who I am and can be (Butler, 1993; Britzman, 1995; Kumashiro, 2004; Schick, 2000b, 2004).  Yet even powerful discourses encounter resistance and require ongoing "category maintenance" (Davies, 2000a, p. 23) if their borders are to be maintained. They can also be disrupted through interdiscursive engagement (McKenzie, 2007).