ABSTRACT
Sara Suleri and Linda Martin Alcoff are both critical of the cop-out in understanding that occurs when self-identified representatives of the dominant culture or mainstream, acting out of supposedly ethical considerations of cultural sensitivity, retreat from discussion about the Other. The audience, which includes many white women and people of oppressed nationalities and races, waits in eager anticipation for his contribution to this important discussion. Many feminists have critiqued Hetene Cixous precisely on the grounds that she presents a potentially essentialist view of womanhood, that obscures material differences in the conditions of actual women, and thus ignores the necessarily context-specific nature of effective forms of resistance. A feminist reading critical of Rudolfo A. Anaya's novel is certainly legitimate; for example, Anaya portrays women in his novel, including Ultima herself, the spiritual mentor of the narrator, as taking on importance only insofar as they shape, affect, and impinge upon the destiny of men —the destinies of the women are apparently irrelevant.
