t4

The Spatial lmperative of Subiectivity

Elspeth ProbYn

domcsticatc spacc' to bring it within a human

History o/Iirae, Stephcn Hawking
lr his A Rricl:when
a body movcs' it afl'ccts the
*rit"t tttut
or space an<I iimc - and in tum the
".i"niut" in which
it-"iut ot tpo.. time afli'cts thc w-ay
16) Thcrc's
indi.rrnou. forccs acl'(1988:
"n,l com-
somcthing so obvious aboul this lcanrcd
is' il'we truly consider ho$
mcnt. Ob-vious, thal
we inhabit sFace Can wc ever concelv!' oI
oursclves outiidc rhc spacc we inhahit'l Do
uc
,o." levcl recogniz'e thl} differing aflbct-s
not
ihat "t
play upon und *ilhin us as wc move through
\'c expcrlcncc our
different spacesl Profoundly'
post-
subiectivities. the ways in which we arc
In lerms
tioned in regard to oursel\es as subJ€cts'
llow can it bc-otherwise'
oitottt spaie una tlmc.
glvcn rhat our bodics cnd our sense ot ourselvcs
irc in constant interaction uith how and whcrc
we arc placed'l
In this chaptcr, I want to look morc closely
at
that ho\ we
how this happcns l will also arguc
e*perienc"'oursclues is deeply slruclured by
hiJtori".l pto".'tt". that makc us into subjccls l
want to d;aw out theoretical models that help
us
the complexity ofthc formation ofsub-
to realize
iectivitv. What is it that drags upon us as we
moue ihtough space'l How are different spaccs
historically formulated as conduclve to some
--io
subiectivities and not others'l
ttrint about subjectivity in tenns ofspace is
evident vet relatively recent Popular concep-
iions of our 'selves' commonly place them as
a long
somewhere deep within us Therc is
i.n""v in *"tt.tn thinking that places thc core ol-
nu?.iu.t ,t enclosed wiihin lf subjectivity has
U".n foac"O away as a prisline entity untouched^
uu ift" or't*ura Uoav. tpace too has a history
of
contained
blinc conceptualized ai bounded and
As Eue Best clearly argues. the pervaslve
rn"tuptto.i"ution of space in terms of the femi-
nine consolidates this 'persistent desire to
horizon and, most importantly to "contain" it
within this horizon' (1995: 183) Much of the
rcscarch in culiural theory over thc last dccades
hrs bccn dircctcd at rcthinking such conceptual-
izations. Thinking about subjectivity In terms-ol
tnal
soace ol'necessity reworks any conccptlon
suhicclivity is htddcn away in privale reccsses
whar wc irold most dcar. as an indtvidual intt-
lnui" porr"r.ion' is in fact a vcry public affair'
Thinkinc about how spacc inleracts with subjec-
rr'thinking hoth tcrms' and lheir
ii"iiu
"i"il.
relaiton to each othcr.
Much of the most cxciting work on subjectlv-
ilvhas been influenc,"d by li'minist pcrspectives
F-cminists have raiscd crucicl qu('stions about the
ielations of power that pemreate how subjectivi-
to
tics are constructcd and cxpcrienccd Contrary
lhat sr\! the
Lr long htstory in westcm thou8hr
bodv-as troublesomc and as an impcdimcnl to
pro-
rcason. fcminists have argued that the body
about the working
uiacr us wlttr key knowledgc
of our subiectivitics. Thc body then bccomes a
srte for th; production of knowledgc' feelings'
und history. all ol'which drc central to
"-o(ton,
subiectivity. As wc'll sr'c. thc body cannot be
thoi.tcht ofas a contained en((yi tr is in constant
lvith oth"rs. This then provides thc basis
"ontict a
for considering subjcctivity as relational
matter.
io ,t"rt *ith a simple question: what is sub-
gc( used
iectivitv? Olien subjectivity and idcntity
This is understandsble because
interchangeably.
we think;f o;rselves as having an identily' or
sevcral. For the purposes of lhis chapter' how-
t ut" the term subjectivity and rarely
"u"r,
employ identity. This is because I !lant to outlrnc
ifre'wav subteitivity rclates to the concepl of
the
*fti".f,. as we'll see' is also associated
iu-Ui..i
wit-h the idea of ideotogy. While ideology is no
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3^t-Lvu3dt.|t'tvrrvds 3Hr
 PLACING SUBTECTTVTTTES
through violence (what he called 'thc rcprcssive
state apparatuses'). the main part of the work of
getting us to accept our condition is through ideo-
logy. Althusser opens the term to what he called
'the ideological State apparatuses'. These include
the family, education. religion and most of the
legal proccdures. Akin to Picne Bourdieu's (l9ll4)
emphasis on class and education, Althusser's point
was that we are informed at an early age by the
work of these ideological apparatuses.
One of his central arguments is that wc are
'interpellatcd' or 'hailed' by ideology. The classic
example is the following scenario: you are walk-
ing on the street and a cop calls out 'hey, you';
seemingly we instinctively tum, 'what, me?' At
that moment, says Althusser, we have gone from
being an ordinary individual aud have become a
subject ofand for the law. There are other sce-
narios that Althusser doesn't mention. For
instance, if you are walking on the saeet and
somcone wolf-whistles, and you tum, morc
Iikely than not you are being interpellated as a
('pretty') woman. ln other words, we may be
walking along unconcerned whether we are male
or f'emale, black or white, straight or gay, when
something happens that forces recognition of the
fact that we are gendered, raced and sexed. To go
back to the example of the policeman who hails
you on the strcet: ifyou arc, say, young, black
and male the chances are that the intemellation of
the law will strike more d!'cply thcn iI you are
white and middle class, ln the case of the latler-
you may not even tecognize that you are being
hailed. You may think that the apparatus o[ the
law is there to serve you, not that you are a likely
subject of its force.
One of Althusser's key points is that ideas
about who is a good or a bad subject are always
preselt in our society. Given the huge range of
experiences it is surprising how limited are the
choices in terms ofgood and bad subjects. These
notions are not ephemeral but are stitched into us
through our everyday pmctices. As Althusser
states, 'an ideology always exists in an apparatus
and its practices. This existcnce is always mater-
ial' (1971: 155). In this way we can begin to
understand that the ideas that a society has about
what is feminine or masculine, what is 'normal',
etc. do not just seep into our heads; these ideas
are reproduced over and over again through the
practices defined by different apparatuscs, and
then in our own pmctiaes. This is a more nuanced
and much more pervasive view than was evident
in the ways in which ideology was previously
theodzed. We are subjected to the practices of
different ideological apparatuses, and we
become subjects in terms of them. This leads to
Althusser's argument that there is 'no ideology
cxcept by and in an ideology; thcre is no ideology
cxcept by the subject and for thq subjecl' ( l97l:
160). Further, ideology has the furction (which
defines it) of 'constituting' concrete individuals
as sublects-
Althusser also forcel'ully raised the f'act that
we are all inlbrmcd by ideology. Indeed, we all
arc l, ideology. and to a certain extent the very
t-act of being within ideology is comfoning.
Althusser uses the example of religion as a per.
t'ectly hermetic system which gives its believers
absolution. In giving yourselfto God you are not
only assured of a placc in the afterlife; herc on
carth you will know your position. In Althusser's
terms, you are a subjcct in as much as you are
subjected to a higher subiect, God. This higler
subject guarantees your exislcnce: 'Peace be
with you.'
This structurc of subject fbrmation ls also
cornmon outside religion. For example, in l2-step
progmmmes modelled on AA, individuals give
themselves over to a 'higher power' which then
secures a subjectivity as 'a recovering alcoholic'.
The l2-step syslem is a very simple ideological
structure which allows us to see the process of
subjection and subjectivity- Thc individual says
to the group, 'Hi, my name is Fred, and I'm an
alcoholic.' Thcre is no last name because th€
system is not interested in othcr subjectivities
you may bring to the group. The u holc process is
armed ur verbalizing. ullering and outing one
subjectivity. This is secured by the prornise that
ifyou do aniculatc this subjectivity you can also
give over to the highcr subject all your other
problems and worries. And that you will not
drink. Ideological structures work on the concept
ofmutual recognition that by subjecting yourself
to a higher subject, you exist.
To recap the points ofthis system ofideologi-
cal recognition, we can state:
ldeology interpellatcs individuals as subjects.
Through practices they enact their subjection
to the higher subject.
This entails that therc is a mutual recosnition
of subjecls and higher subjeet. rhe sribjecrs'
recognition ofeach other, and finally the sub.
ject's recognition of him,rherself.
In tum, this provides the absolute guarantee
that everything is so, and that on the condi-
tion that the subjects recognize what th€y are
and behave accordingly, everything will be
alright: 'Amen, so be it-'
The result ofthis process is that most individuals
enact themselves as'good' subjects. What
emerges from this argument is that the category
of the subject is absolutely central at the same
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 PLACTNG SUBTECTtVtTtES
of large numbers of single mothers, we can
understand what it means to bc inside and out-
side the ideology of gender. At these moments.
we may go from being 'just' an individual to rec-
ognizing ourselves as ggndgred subjects. To take
another example, ifyou are not heterosexual (and
maybe even ifyou are), the dominant representa-
tion of romance and family will at times irritate.
At some level, the very fbct ofbeing at odds with
culture is experienced like a visceral schism. In
this case, chances are that your subjectivity will
be keenly experienced as diff'ercnt from others.
There is no doubt that this moment of misrecog-
nition - when you do not feel hailed by dominant
ideologies - can be painful. But it is also crucial
to the production ofanother subjectivity, one that
may be in the 'spaces-olf ofmainstream culture.
De Lauretis provides us with a critical frame-
work for thinking about subjectivities and space.
She is very clear that when she speaks of the
movement back and lbrth, she does 'not mean a
movement fiom one space to another beyond it.
or outside' (1988: 25). In other words, she does
not want us to think that there is ideology and
there is 'reality', as if the latter were not inextri-
cably caught with the former. Subjectivity is a
process that is continually in play with'reality'
and 'ideology', dominant representations and our
own self-representations. And as de Lauretis puts
it, we all live with. and indeed within. 'the tension
of contradiction, multiplicity, and heteronomy'
(1988: 26).
Clearly then, subjectivity is not a given but
rather a process and a production. It is also unde-
niable that the sites and spaces of its production
are centlal. In other words, the space and place
we inhabit produce us. It follows too that how we
inhabit those spaces is an interactive al'fair. A
jointly authored article published a few years ago
argued that 'space is gendered and that space
is sexed ... The rcverse has also been shown:
gender, sex and sexuality are all "spaced"' (Bell
et al., 1994: 3l-2). Their article presents a com-
plex argument about sexual practices and space.
ln tum, the joumal which published it (Gender
Place and Culturc'y asked several people to
respond, including myself'. I won't rchash my
argument more than I already have, but I want to
replay an example I used in order to extend the
idea about subjectivity and space as interactive.
Consider this scene: your average type of pub some-
where {for somc reason. a placc in Kitislano. Vancouver
comes to mind), the men are propped up on the bar.
shoulder to shoulder, prcsenring a solid front of space
gendered as masculine; they are men s men but cer-
lainly nol gay. A single woman enters and she is
checked ovcr, chatrcd up or ignorcd. And iflhat space
fecls stultifying. it is bccausc she is walka g Inro srrrrri
upon discursive strah that producc masculinc snaoc as
the ground of di ffercnlialion and the grounds lbr thcrr
appropriation ofwomen as Woman (which rs to s.y. tl
man-made gender). (Probyn. I994: 80)
What I wanted to raise hcrc were the ways in
which space presses against our bodies, and of
necessity touches at our sub.jectivities. One ofthe
important implications of thinking in terms of
subjectivity rather than identity is that even in
banal examples like this, thc denseness, histori-
city and structural complexity become clcar.
There are ofcourse lots ofspaces that seem to be
nalurall) masculine or leminine. For instancc.
the kitchen is held to be the woman's domain.
and in our daily lives we may oflen cxperience
this: from mothers cooking for families, to
parties where the girls gather in the kitchen to talk.
Historically, pubs have been designated as men's
places. In westem cultures until recently women
were excluded either by law or by custom from
entering the pub. tn Quebec there are signs on the
doors ofbrasseries that state: 'Women welcome.'
This is because by law they now have to lct
women in. But it is a powerful reminder of how
recent that change is. In Australia, women did
not go to bars, and Aboriginal Australians were
prohibi{ed un(il recently. lndeed lherc are stories
about how, during the Vietnam War, black
American soldiers were allowed into bars and
pubs, whilst Aboriginals were not allowed. The
idea that the pub is a male-gendered space is nor
a myth but an actual historical construction.
So when I ask what happens when a woman
goes into a bar, it is clear that she must confront
at some level the fact that 'she does not belons
here'. She will occupy that space quite differi
ently from the men who are 'propped up on the
bar'. She will be made to feel her gender subjec-
tivity, whereas men may bc ablc to fbrget that
their subjectivities are also constmcted through
the interyellation of gender. This is a small
example. but it may help us examinc morc
closely how as individuals we inhabit space. and
how space inhabits us.
ln the example of the pub, I also wanted to
bring out the ways that sexuality is highlighrcd in
certain spaces. Ifthe space ofthe pub is gendered
as masculine, in my example it was also struc-
tured by heterosexuality. We can again ask thc
question of what happens when a woman goes
into a bar, and complicate it by adding the l'act
that she is going to meet hcr girlfriend. In this
scenario, not only will the women feel their
gender, but they will also be made to feel their
difference: that they are not heterosexual. This
space reveals that pans of their subjectivities are
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 PLACTNG SUBJECT|VtTtES
research in Manchester's gay village shows, the
attraction for straight women is that they do not
have to endure the pickup routines of stmight
bars. Also they appreciate the style of the gay
male clientele.
ln Skeggs'research it became apparent that
this straight invasion into queer space has reper-
cussions on the queemess of identified queer
space. In an interesting way, she argues that
gender retums to trouble sexuality. This is espe-
cially so in regard to the relations between
straight and gay women in queer space. Simply
put, straight women may be atuacted to gay men
in terms ofa non-threatening relationship that is
still based in a gendered opposition of same-
other. However, their relation to lesbians is quite
different. To be blunt, lesbians are more threat-
ening because they exist in a same-same yet
different relationship to straight women. Hetero-
sexual women may worry that they could be the
object of desire for lesbians in ways that are
impossible or at least less likely in their rclation-
ships with gay men. Conversely, Skeggs has also
found that lesbians don't like the ways in which
straight women appropriate space. There is an
erasure ofthe fact oflesbians within queer space,
as the spaca gets structured in terms of gay men
to gay men, and straight women to gay men. This
plays out in little but significant ways: for
instance, Skeggs' lesbian informants complained
that the toilets get filled with straight women
doing their hair and makeup, and looking
askance at the lesbians. Given the fact that les-
bians have historically found it much more diffi-
cult than gay men io assert their sexuality outside
ofprivate spheres. tbis limits the free expression
of sex in space. For instance, while public sex is
accepted practice amongst gay men, what would
the straight girls do if a couple of lesbians were
having sex in the toilets?
This may seem like a trivial question but it
does go to the heart ofhow space and subjectiv-
ity mutually interaca. One of the defining divi-
sions in our culture is that of private versus
public space. ln general, women have been only
recently allowed to incorporate public space into
thefu sense of sell Where one gets to do what
with whom is therefore an important point.
While it is often argued that the public penetrates
more and more into the private, it is less common
to hear how individuals' subjectivilies are
affected by the movement into the public or con-
versely into the private. In Kathy Ferguson's
(1993) tems, this is why it is important to think
about the mobility ofsubjects. She states that she
has 'chosen the term mobile ralher than mulliple
to avoid the implication of movement from one
stable resting place' (1993: 158). ln other words,
we need to conceptualize subjectivities in terms
ofnot just the multiple positions we all hold, but
how they get configured across space and places.
In terms ofthc above discussion ofsexuality and
space, it's important noi to conclude that there
are hermetic spaces designated as queer and
others as stmight. There are places which act as
nodes, or meeting points, but it's not as ifwe take
offan identity as lesbian once wc venture beyond
them. As Geraldine Pratt argues, 'there is a deep
suspicion about mapping cultures onto places,
because multiple cultures and identities
inevitably inhabit a single place (think ofthe mul-
tiple identities performed under the roof of a
family home)' (1998: 27).
One ofthe imponant aspects ofPratt's work is
the way she navigates between the excesses of
seeing subjectivity as completely fragmented and
errant, and a perspective that would place subjec-
tivity as a side-effect ofplace. Pratt's research has
focused on how migrant workers in Nonh America
inhabit their working spaces. In this sense, the
workplace 'not only enable[s] but exact[s] the
performance of panicular gender, class, and racial
identities' (1998: 28). In other research Pran
studied women employed in so-called non-skilled
white-collar jobs. She argues that 'these women
literally move through class locations during the
day. At theirjobs they are working class, at home
they are mid{le class' (1998: 34). What close
ethnographic work reveals is the fact that most
individuals seek to anchor their senses of them-
selves. The women in Pratt's study obviously
have an investment in both their jobs and their
middle-class identities at home. Against much of
the highly abshacted theoretical work on frag-
mentary, floating subjectivities, this retums us to
the idea thai we may be hailed by different ideo-
logical apparatuses, but we also scek some coher-
ence even in the face of multiple interpellations.
Speaking in terms of our increasingly multi-
cultural and differeniiated living conditions, Pratt
states: 'lt seems to me that efforts ... are not
advanced by representations that conceive of
cities as blured, chaotic, borderless places.' I
would add that our efforts to understand subjec-
tivities also need to avoid celebrating subjectivity
and identity as amorphous and as essentially
boundless. Rather, as Pratt puts it, 'one must
understand the multiple processes of boundary
construction in order to disrupt them' (1998: 44).
At first sight this emphasis on boundaries
seems to go against the prevalent direction in
cultural geography that insists on the chaotic -
on the fact that 'there is always an element of
"chaos" in space' (Massey, 1999: 284). Doreen
Massey, one of the more influential writers on
space, defines this chaos as resulting
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 PLACTNG SUBTECTIVITIES
should not attempt to speak for'the oiher'. By
now, hopefully, it is common sense that I cannot
speak for an amorphous group, be it the other, or
women. or whomsoever.
It also has to be said that I am no longer inter-
ested in the ins and outs of 'Who am l?' The
broad brush depiction will do fine: white, female,
relatively privileged, etc. I am, however, more
than ever committed io thinking about how sub-
jectivities can be thought of in terms of being
both structured aod porous, spatially determined,
temporally heavy. This is why in this chapter I
have retumed to the basics of Althusset's struc-
tural theory of ideology. I suppose I could have
equally deployed theories such as Bourdieu's
who develops a notion of how social structures
are incorporated. However there is something
about the immediacy ofAlthusser's desc ptions
that attract me. They point to the multidimen-
sional nature of how we produce ourselves, as
well as how we live with difference.
Subjectivity is a question ofsameness and dif-
ference, the near and the far. My preferred way
of thinking about a wide range of issues is in
terms of 'relations of proximity'. Dictionaries
define'proximity' as closeness:'neamess in
space, time, etc.' lt is related to the Latin p,'oxi-
m!.r, 'nearest'. Personally 'relations of proxim-
ity' bring to mind the near and the far, what
cannot be rendeted near, \ryhat is always pro-
duced as close. Furthermore, relations of prox-
imity highlight the facts of connection or
dis/connection. The term'connection' has
become widely used, and belongs in much the
same frame as'interrelation' or Massey's
notion of 'arrangements-in-relation-to-each
other'. Clearly her use ofthe hyphen emphasizes
the connection between each term, and refers to
possible connections amongst individuals. For
me, this remains an imponant point even if, as I
mentioned, I now want more ground upon which
to base ideas of the types of connection that are
possible. But logically, if we agree that we need
to think about po.rrir,le connections, then we
must also addrcss the conditioru that will make
them impossible, or at least difficult to enact.
ln adjoining connection and dis/connection, I
want to render centml the facts that disable or
render connection hard. These are the hard 'facts
of life': conditions of inequality and non-
commensurability due to economic power, class,
social privilege, history, etc. They also retum us
to the ways in which we are interpellated differ-
ently: that we are hailed by different ideologies
in different ways, and that the institutions that
maintain relations of how we are hailed pose
blocks to possible connections. In other words,
subjectivities are differentially itrformed.
Emphasizing the absolute spatial nature of the
processes of subjectivity should also remind us
ofwhere and how we are interpellated. Instead of
plastering over those differences, we need to stop
and address them. Sometimes that stopping will
result in silence. And that slash between dis/
connection should indicate a pause - a moment of
non-recognition that may be expressed as simply
as 'wow, you really are different from me'.
The point is not to stay caught in that moment
of bewilderment or enchantment: that would
only reinscribe difference as an exotic, fetishized
or denied quality. In other words, this would be
to replay the noGsame as 'the other', which is to
posit a relation ofdubious connection. Nor is it to
legitimate tuming away, closing down in the face
of non-connection. That would be to replay the
history ofhow racialized, classed and other rela-
tions have tended to produce hermetic subjects.
In Susan Willis' description, this would be a
situation wherein 'To somc extent, all [whites]
are reified subjects, against whom it is impossr-
ble for blacks to mount passiooate. self-affirming
resistance or retaliation' (1989: 174). Con-
versely, it also renders it impossible for whites to
have any connection to blacks except those of
guilt, denial or retaliation. This is not the type of
dis/connection I am thinking of, and cannot be
because it is effectively no connection at all.
ln terms of bringing together the different
points of this chapter, in retuming to Althusserian
theory I have attempted to sketch out the
ways in which space always informs, limits and
produces subjectivity. Equally subjectivity con-
nects with space, and it reaniculates certarn
historical definitions ofspace. ln this sense, neither
space nor subjectivity is free-floating: they are
mutually interdependent and complexly struc-
tured entities. The interest in retuming to the
ideological underpinnings of the very notion of
ihe subject is that it tums attention to the ways in
which subjectivities are produced under very
particular circumstances. This then can lead the
way to rethinking the questions that press upon
us: from the ways that globalization testructures
every aspect ofour lives. and interconnects us in
visceral and symbolic ways with those 'far off',
to the 'spaces-off in which we perform new
modes of subjectivity and reaniculate the limits
of gender, sex, race and class.
We need to think of subjeclivity as an
unwieldy, continually contestable and affi rmable
basis for living in the world. Subjectivities are
then simply a changing ensemble of openings
and closings, points of contact and points which
repel contact. ln space, we orient ourselves and
are oriented. That is the spatial imperative of
subjectivities.
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