The Problem of Representing the Poor

نوع مقاله : مقاله علمی پژوهشی

نویسنده

استاد، گروه مطالعات معلولیت و توسعه انسانی، دانشگاه ایلینوی شیگاگو - آمریکا

چکیده

A licensed reprint of Lennard J. Davis’s chapter “The Problem of Representing the Poor” from his 2024 book Poor Things: How Those with Money Depict Those without It, published by Duke University Press. In this chapter, Davis explores what he calls “representational inequality”, and invites us to consider how exo-writers (those not of poverty) have dominated depictions of the poor, how these distortions shape public imagination, and how perhaps only endo-writers (those who are or have been poor) or transclass writers (those who have changed in class position) can begin to represent poverty with nuance, agency, and accountability. Davis’s work sets an important tone for this issue: it reminds us that what gets written, who writes it, and how it is read are all sociocultural acts bound up with the distribution of power.

عنوان مقاله [English]

The Problem of Representing the Poor

نویسنده [English]

  • Lennard J. Davis
Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago - USA
چکیده [English]

A licensed reprint of Lennard J. Davis’s chapter “The Problem of Representing the Poor” from his 2024 book Poor Things: How Those with Money Depict Those without It, published by Duke University Press. In this chapter, Davis explores what he calls “representational inequality”, and invites us to consider how exo-writers (those not of poverty) have dominated depictions of the poor, how these distortions shape public imagination, and how perhaps only endo-writers (those who are or have been poor) or transclass writers (those who have changed in class position) can begin to represent poverty with nuance, agency, and accountability. Davis’s work sets an important tone for this issue: it reminds us that what gets written, who writes it, and how it is read are all sociocultural acts bound up with the distribution of power.

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