
- 269 pages
- English
- PDF
- Available on iOS & Android
About this book
"A splendid study, surely one of the most important that has appeared on the whole matter of power and resistance."—Natalie Zemon Davis
Confrontations between the powerless and powerful are laden with deception—the powerless feign deference and the powerful subtly assert their mastery. Peasants, serfs, untouchables, slaves, laborers, 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, renowned social scientist James C. Scott offers a penetrating 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, Scott examines the many guises this interaction has taken throughout history and the tensions and contradictions it reflects.
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Information
Table of contents
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Chapter One: Behind the Official Story
- Chapter Two: Domination, Acting, and Fantasy
- Chapter Three: The Public Transcript as a Respectable Performance
- Chapter Four: False Consciousness or Laying It on Thick?
- Chapter Five: Making Social Space for a Dissident Subculture
- Chapter Six: Voice under Domination: The Arts of Political Disguise
- Chapter Seven: The Infrapolitics of Subordinate Groups
- Chapter Eight: A Saturnalia of Power: The First Public Declaration of the Hidden Transcript
- Bibliography
- Index