Can Estamira talk?: The Brazilian documentary and the voice of the subaltern

Abstract

The article analyzes the representation of Estamira, the most important character in the documentary with the same title by Marcos Prado, released in 2006, aiming at answering, in a concrete and specific context, the question or theoretical problem elaborated by Gayatri Spivak (2010) in her classic study about the intellectual discourse and the possibility of voice for marginalized population. If Spivak asked “can the subaltern talk?”, in this investigation, it is tried to answer if, through the filmic representation, Estamira can talk. Besides Spivak’s classic study, it will be discussed some specifications of the movie related to the documentary genre and its closeness to fiction and reality, as well as some theoretical contributions by Michel Foucault (2009) referring to the life of men without fame and the existence of their discourse related to situations where power is present. My reading of Estamira’s discourse situation, therefore, aims at questioning the possibility of the intellectual person, represented by the movie director in this case, to give voice to the subaltern through his productions and representations. Answering this question affirmatively, the article concludes, however, considering that Estamira’s discourse acquires force without the analysis or the rationalization of the intellectual/movie director, that the disconnection of her speech is what reveals the tensions between the subject and the power.