AN EXERCISE IN WORLDMAKING 2009 - ISS

12 “Feminist Representations of Rape and Victimization” 143
tory, thus my same country of origin, and familiarity with an author can
help.
Moreover, even if Gramscian philosophy of praxis is directed only to
the emancipation of the subaltern classes and, just to make an example,
women or ethnic or sexual minorities are not taken into consideration, I
believe that his understanding of philosophy as an exercise of political
agency, can be adapted to a more relativist conceptualization of oppression.
In fact, as Lather explains talking about emancipation as a “multicentred
discourse”, we can think in emancipation as a process of liberation
from different types of oppression –not only class, so that it can
become discourse that recognises the intersectionality of power relation
at stake in society and accepts a certain degree of relativism (1991: 22).
The last point of my research that has been subjected to criticisms is
related to my assumption on the existence of social relations of power.
But actually, this is not an assumption present in the research; in fact, I
do not state that there are power relations in reality, but that interpreting
reality with the lens of social relations of power may be emancipatory.
This clarification should be readjusted to the ontology of this research
with a post-modern perspective, without disregarding emancipation, as
the most important quality of Gramscian epistemological position.
LINKING RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND EPISTEMOLOGY
Recognising the interplay that exists between epistemology and methodology,
I will explain here how my conceptualization of the process of
knowing is connected to the way in which this process will be organized
according to my methodology. More specifically, I will present two main
points that make visible this interaction.
First of all, as I already explained, I will pay attention to representations
of rape and victimization in Sexto Sentido and I will analyse them
in terms of discourses. This choice reflects the importance given to language
in post-modern epistemology. Moreover, understanding my discourse
analysis of Sexto Sentido as influenced by my context of origin,
my personal experience and identity and remembering the possibility of
multiple interpretations of texts, I will reject any claim to objectivity or
neutrality.
Second, in order to not “betray” those who participate in the production
of Sexto Sentido and to transform my research into a political activity,
I will propose and discuss my analysis with people from Puntos de