Sirleaf's Subjectivity: Analyzing Position through Discourse

In analyzing Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's Nobel speech, Sean and I elected to use the provided discourse analysis categories (transtextual, contextual, intratextual) as a deductive scheme, but with the added dimension of subject position analysis offered by Jacqueline Jones Royster. Interestingly, even though we approached the analysis differently than Travis and Mikaela, our two groups ended up with some very similar results, suggesting the significance of subject position - what Travis refers to as "identity spaces" in his post - and audience invocation in Sirleaf's speech.

Royster's subject position analysis was one of the first things that came to mind as I read Sirleaf's speech. Royster argues that in analyzing subjectivity, "lenses include the process, results, and impact of negotiating identity, establishing authority, developing strategies for action, carrying forth intent with a particular type of agency, and being compelled by external factors and internal sensibilities to adjust belief and action (or not)" (1117). These lenses reveal much about Sirleaf's speech and the negotiations of identity and agency within it.

In invoking and addressing multiple audiences, Sirleaf identifies herself from multiple standpoints - woman, African, Liberian, Nobel award winner - and speaks across these subject positions to emphasize both Liberia's local needs for continued democratic progress and the status of women worldwide. Sean and I noted Sirleaf's repeated strategy of invoking histories to mark these identities, from her opening statements positioning herself as a "successor to the several sons and one daughter of Africa who have stood on this stage" to her discussion of her own "lifetime journey to Oslo." It is in this latter section, as Mikaela also pointed out in her blog post, that Sirleaf seems to employ her most concrete expression of indigeneity. By connecting her service work to the teachings of her parents and grandmothers, Sirleaf situates her political career and her Nobel prize within a particularly Liberian set of values. In doing so, she asserts Liberia's agency to speak and be heard for its accomplishments.

This type of positioning is key for Royster, who uses the example of the African American community to point out ways that marginalized groups "[have] seen and [continue] to see [their] contributions and achievements called into question" (1119). She claims that subjectivity analysis allows us to more deeply consider the power structures that determine who has the "authority to speak and to make meaning" (1119). Considered through this lens, Sirleaf's attention to Liberia's future rather than its past of conflict suggests that she is utilizing her moment of authority to speak to Liberia (as she addresses the Liberian people directly) and to help make a new global image of her country. As much time as Sirleaf spends invoking histories in her speech, she does not linger on Liberia's history. While one could argue that this represents a lack of indigenous expression on her part, in my reading, it is an expression of the Liberian identity that needs to be represented on a global scale.


Royster, Jacqueline Jones. "When the First Voice You Hear is not Your Own." The Norton Book of Composition Studies. Ed. Susan Miller. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2009. 1117-1127. Print.