University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

"Speaking others, practicing selves: Power, identity, and communications in ""Apna Ghar"" (Our Home)"

Supriya, K.E.

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/20565

Description

Title
"Speaking others, practicing selves: Power, identity, and communications in ""Apna Ghar"" (Our Home)"
Author(s)
Supriya, K.E.
Issue Date
1996
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Kamberelis, George
Department of Study
Communication
Discipline
Communication
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
  • American Studies
  • Social Work
  • Women's Studies
  • Speech Communication
  • Sociology, Ethnic and Racial Studies
Language
eng
Abstract
"This project examines the relationships among power, resistance, gender and immigrant identity construction through discursive and material practices of battered immigrant women in Apna Ghar (Our Home), a shelter for battered immigrant women in Chicago, Illinois. The project extends current theoretical understandings of the relationships among power, resistance, and identity construction in two particular theoretical ways through the method of ethnography as praxis. First, the project argues that not only are multiple power relations reproduced by the construction of marginalized groups as other by the dominant discourses and practices of patriarchy and the West but marginalized groups themselves reproduce multiple power relations by constructing themselves as other through their own discursive and material practices. Second, the project argues that multiple forms of power are resisted and transformed by marginalized groups who reconstruct their identities through many communicative practices. In empirical terms, the project examines how battered immigrant women reproduce both patriarchal power and the power of the American social order by constructing themselves as ""shameless"" or ""dishonorable wives,"" ""immigrants,"" and ""illegal immigrants."" The project also examines how immigrant women in the context of domestic violence resist and transform both patriarchal power and the power of the American social order by reconstructing their identities as ""abused wives,"" ""mothers,"" ""sisters,"" ""independent women,"" ""Asian-Americans,"" and ""legal immigrants."" The discursive and material practices through which Apna Ghar enables battered immigrant women to resist multiple forms of power are examined using the concept of the public sphere. The project then examines how the theoretical model of power and resistance extends Michel Foucault' s model by focussing on the notions of multiplicity, self-subjection, and self-transformation. The project conclusively argues for a research practice of multiple positionality for researchers of Communications and Cultural studies. The project concludes by examining the theoretical-research and practical-political implications of the findings for both scholars and Apna Ghar."
Type of Resource
text
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/20565
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 1996 Supriya, K. E.

Owning Collections

Graduate Dissertations and Theses at Illinois PRIMARY
Graduate Theses and Dissertations at Illinois
Dissertations and Theses - Communication