Hidden Transcript Theoretical Concepts

sense that the writer assumes that the metaphoric expressions in Bob Marley and The Black Brothers songs can provide frame into which people can see specific social and political issues based on the qualifiers above.

3.3. Hidden Transcript

I tremble to speak the words of freedom before the tyrant --CORYPHAEUS, in Euripedes, The Baccae In his book, Domination and the Arts of Resistance, James Scott highlights his view upon power and resistance of the subordinate groups. Influenced by Antonio Gramsci’s concepts of hegemony, Scott identified hidden transcript of expression manifesting this resistance behind the official story of hegemonic public transcripts. 47 It is about how the resistance of subordinates toward domination is disguised, muted, and veiled for safety’s sake. In order to avoid direct confrontation with the ruling power, the subordinate groups manifold strategies to insinuate their resistance in disguised form into the public transcript. While public transcript is the official script of the domination which ties both the oppressor and the oppressed into modes of acceptable behaviour, 48 the hidden transcript is what occurs below the surface. The works of Erving Goffman may give a good insight to Scotts theory of hidden transcript. Goffmans main focus is to analyze daily interaction to see the power relation between the powerful and the powerless through what he 47 Barnard, Eben. Cultural resistance: Can such practices ever have a meaningful political impact? Critical Social Thinking:Policy and Practice, Vol.3 2011, p.114. Web. December 12. 2013. http:www.ucc.ieenappsocresearchconferenceconfcstjcstjournalvolume32011ebenbernardEbenBarnar d.pdf. 48 Nordine, Manisha. Jammin with Resistant Music and Popular Culture in Bob Marleys Jah-Public, p. 122. postulated as theatrical performance. According to Goffman, individuals can participate as both as performers and as audience. When on stage as performers, individuals try to present themselves in a certain way in order to show the preferred definition of the situation, while as audience they try to accommodate the projected images of others to facilitate interaction rituals. 49 As it is, the interaction is not genuine and only a false pretense to maintain working relationship. Scott even made it clearer that according to him appearances can be deceiving. The offstage life is a completely different story. The powerless tend to create their own stories than to accept the official stories of the dominant. In his book, Domination and the Art of Resistance: Hidden Transcript, 50 Scott defined discourses and practices onstage as public transcript while hidden transcript as offstage scenes that take place behind the suspicious eyes of the dominant. The powerless only show their hidden feelings to families, friends, and colleagues. Scott further states that the hidden transcript can be the act of passive resistance which is deeply inscribed into everyday practices. This takes many forms including cultural production such as music, jokes, rumors, and folklore. The subordinate as the vulnerable groups not only have to control their anger but have to conduct what amounts to veil the discourse of their dignity and self-assertion within the public transcript. The undeclared ideological guerrilla war that rages in this political space requires that we enter the world of rumor, gossip, disguises, linguistic tricks, metaphors, euphemisms, folktales, ritual gestures, anonymity. For good reason, nothing is entirely straightforward here; the realities of power for subordinate groups mean that much of their political action requires 49 Joo, Hyung-min. “Hidden Transcripts...Shared?: Passive Resistance in The Soviet Case.” The Korean Journal of International Studies, Korea University. Vol 8. No.2. 2010, pp. 227-298. Web. October 7. 2014. http:www.kaisnet.or.krresourcedown8_2_04.pdf 50 Scott, James C. Domination and the Arts of Resistance Michigan: Yale University Press, 1990. interpretation precisely because it is intended to be cryptic and opaque. 51 The voice of the subordinate groups tend to penetrate the public sphere within the public transcript through the world of rumor, gossip, disguises, linguistic tricks, metaphors, euphemisms, folktales, ritual gestures, and anonymity. Therefore, one has to read carefully to unveil the intended message behind those disguises. If we wish to hear this side of the dialogue we shall have to learn its dialect and codes. Above all, recovering this discourse requires a grasp of the arts of political disguise. 52 It is through this sense that the writer assumes the works of Bob Marley and especially The Black Brothers are the arts of political disguise. Although Scott developed his concept of hidden transcript twenty four years ago based on the life of the remote Malaysian village of Sedaka, the writer of this thesis assumes that it is still applicable nowadays. It would seem that there are not many disputes over the theory since it is still relevant and beneficial for other researchers on power relation, especially in developing countries in Asia. As far as the writer concern there is one article by Hyung-min Joo from Korea University which has challenged the exclusivity of Scotts theory. Hidden transcripts tend to be hidden tightly to Scott. In an analog, a slave cannot share his hidden transcript with his master. The sharing is only with his families, friends, and other slaves. Somehow these hidden transcripts can also be shared with the master according to Hyung-min Joo. 53 As an empirical support he uses evidence in Soviets social and political life where the sharing of hidden transcript between the powerful and the powerless can possibly occur as a social phenomenon. This 51 Ibid, p. 137. 52 Ibid, p. 138. 53 Joo, Hyung-min. “Hidden Transcripts...Shared?: Passive Resistance in The Soviet Case.” new point of view does not change the basic tenets of Scots theory but enriching it.

3.4. Memoria Passionis