Alfredo Sánchez Santiago
Universidad del País Vasco, UPV/EHU (sanchezs.alfredo@gmail.com; ORCID: 0000- 0002-5129-3662).
Abstract: This paper examines the relationship between intellectual discourse and subaltern speech through two political and theoretical experiences that emerged from the aftermath of May ’68: the militant work of the Prisons Information Group (1971-1972), and Jacques Rancière’s archaeological inquiry into workers’ speech in the 1970s. I argue that, although grounded in different methods – the enquête in the former, archive in the latter – both projects share a common commitment: affirming the right and capacity of subaltern subjects to speak for themselves, name the causes of their suffering, and articulate their political struggle autonomously. This approach contrasts with a model of social critique associated with Pierre Bourdieu, who contends that the political role of intellectuals is to represent social suffering by supplying subaltern subjects with the knowledge and language they lack to understand the causes of their domination and give words to their suffering. The interview technique, as conceptualized in La misère du monde, functions as the correlative tool of this model of social critique – distinct from both the Maoist enquête and Rancière’s method of writing subaltern speech. The broader aim of the article is to reflect on the representation of social suffering, the political role of intellectuals, the epistemic value of subaltern voices, and the mise en récit of the other’s discourse.
Keywords: Social critique; Subaltern speech; Archive; Enquête; Interview.