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Confrontations between the powerless and the powerful are laden with deception - the powerless feign deference and the powerful subtly assert their mastery. Peasants, serfs, untouchables, slaves, labourers, and prisoners are not free to speak their minds in the presence of power. These subordinate groups instead create a secret discourse that represents a critique of power spoken behind the backs of the dominant. At the same time, the powerful also develop a private dialogue about practices and goals of their rule that cannot be openly avowed. In this book, the author, a social scientist, offers a discussion both of the public roles played by the powerful and powerless and the mocking, vengeful tone they display off stage - what he terms their public and hidden transcripts. Using examples from the literature, history, and politics of cultures around the world, the author examines the many guises this interaction has taken throughout history and the tensions and contradictions it reflects. The author describes the ideological resistance of subordinate groups - their gossip, folktales, songs, jokes, and theater - their use of anonymity and ambiguity. He also analyzes how ruling elites attempt to convey an impression of hegemony through such devices as parades, state ceremony, and rituals of subordination and apology. Finally he identifies - with quotations that range from the recollections of American slaves to those of Russian citizens during the beginnings of Gorbachev's glasnost campaign - the political electricity generated among oppressed groups when, for the first time, the hidden transcript is spoken directly and publicly in the face of power.
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IF THE EXPRESSION "Speak truth to power" still has a utopian ring to it, even in modern democracies, this is surely because it is so rarely practiced. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
IF THE EXPRESSION "Speak truth to power" still has a utopian ring to it, even in modern democracies, this is surely because it is so rarely practiced. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
In contrast to much of the academic literature out there, this book is well written and the author has taken great care to explain and illustrate every position.
In this book Scott examines the relationship between the powerful and the subordinate.
Scott invites us to look hehind the performances of compliance that subordinates (slaves, untouchables, labourers, etc.) lay on for the dominant, to the hidden transcripts of resistance. The book visits those places and events where subordinates are free to speak their mind and perform acts of defiance, no matter how small.
He also examines the public performance of deference itself. An example of one of the many interesting points he makes: when this performance is in close conformity with how the dominant group would wish things to appear, it provides convincing evidence to them for the hegemony of their values, and even serves to justify their domination.
In this book Scott examines the relationship between the powerful and the subordinate.
Scott invites us to look hehind the performances of compliance that subordinates (slaves, untouchables, labourers, etc.) lay on for the dominant, to the hidden transcripts of resistance. The book visits those places and events where subordinates are free to speak their mind and perform acts of defiance, no matter how small.
He also examines the public performance of deference itself. An example of one of the many interesting points he makes: when this performance is in close conformity with how the dominant group would wish things to appear, it provides convincing evidence to them for the hegemony of their values, and even serves to justify their domination.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
6 reviews
44 of 50 people found the following review helpful
James C. Scott's Domination and the Arts of Resistance
11 Nov 2000
Format:Hardcover
Spanning the entire globe and covering over 1000 years of human history, James C. Scott's Domination and the Arts of Resistance is an intellectual odyssey into the relatively new field of subaltern studies. It is also an intellectual oasis for historians and general readers of history who have become disillusioned with the traditional historiography of power relations and resistance among dominate groups and subordinate groups. Indeed, Scott's use of folklore, speeches, ballads, literary theory,linguistics, and public ceremonies, e.g., parades and political rallies, greatly adds to the works of other innovative historians of culture, domination, and resistance, e.g., Scott gives the works of Michel Focault, Hayden White, Dominick LaCapra, and Natalie Zemon Davis, to name a few, new perspectives for cultural analysis. Perhaps of greater importance is Scott's examination of what he describes as "public" and "private" transcripts,i.e., dialogue among and between the dominate and subordinate groups. Furthermore, Scott puts great emphasis on the "infrastructure" of power relationships among the respective inner "communities" of theweak and the strong. In short, what goes on behind the scenes, away from the public eye, reveals the true nature of what Scott labels as "masks of power", which are, in effect, merely public performances designed to placate both dominate and subordinate groups. This absorbing work will certainly be influential for future generations of historians, anthroplogists, political scientists, and sociologists.
9 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Serious, but accessible
10 Mar 2006
Format:Paperback
I got "domination" for a class, which does not tend to bias me in favor of liking a book. However, I have tentatively enjoyed reading it. It is a serious, scholarly book, but the topic is engaging and the case studies and historical examples cited are always interesting. I think that the author supports his complex thesis very well, and I would recommend this book to people who want to read something serious about race and culture.
33 of 53 people found the following review helpful
an epiphany on every page
13 May 1999
Format:Paperback
"When the great lord passes the wise peasant bows deeply and silently farts." This book marks one of those moments for me when rethink just about everything...from elusidating certain truisms to hammering out theories and ideas that ring remarkably true, Scott's book is challenging, powerful, and engaging. Reading this book is like sitting in his office conversing...I find myself exclaiming and agreeing aloud. I really enjoy his comments on gender; a concept I have felt comfortable with for years, and suddenly I feel as though he has just clarified it for me. I have been doing double-takes as random comments about women in my primary sources (about fickleness of emotion) which I thought I could chalk up to typical misogyny begin to catagorize themselves in my mind as the effects of attempting to live within hidden and public transcripts. Very readable, interesting, engaging...in a word, fabulous.
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