| Sumario: | In this paper I develop a theoretical approach that rehabilitates identity as a political and interpretive, not essentialist, category. To this end, I explore versions of feminist standpoint theory developed by Nancy Hartsock and Alison Jaggar. While these versions of standpoint theory have marked the significance of experience and knowledge for feminist practice, their conception of subjectivity is too unified and, therefore, creates problems for addressing the epistemological implications of “difference.” For this approach to feminist subjectivity, power relations of race, class, and nation are “differences” which are viewed as threatening endless fragmentation or promising plurality. Alternatively, following Norma Alarcón's theory of multiple-voiced subjectivity, I argue that relations of power produce complex subjectivities situated within multiple, intersecting axes of power: race, class, sex, gender, nation. These relations of power mark the terrain of experience as an interpretive field for the production of knowledge and collective identity. This approach shifts the interpretation of experience and knowledge from a paradigm of essentialism, fragmentation, and pluralist difference to a paradigm of accountability and coalition. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
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