The many challenges of theorizing subjectivity

Abstract

Cultural psychologists and other social researchers have demonstrated a strong interest in subjectivity in recent years. It has become apparent that there are a number of challenges and tensions inherent in such projects, some of which are acknowledged more often than others. One such challenge is how to theorize subjectivity as both socioculturally constituted and experiential, embodied, and singular. Another less frequently articulated problem is the question of how to accord a prominent place to affective and emotional experience when subjectivity is often framed and analyzed in predominantly cognitive, rationalistic or “sociorational” terms. Recent approaches that highlight embodiment are intended, in part, to address this concern, but they can be accompanied by a drift toward neurobiological reductionism. Other problems include the tension between phenomenological, narrative and psychoanalytic approaches to subjectivity, and the need to differentiate between methods used to analyze literal “texts” and those appropriate for studying the ways texts and other cultural products are read and used by embodied persons. These challenges and complexities notwithstanding, current projects concerned with developing theories of subjectivity, and with highlighting its “affective” dimension in particular, are extremely valuable and should be encouraged.