The question of self-consciousness is indeed crucial to cultural studies. On the one hand, we ought not to deny anyone's self-consciousness. On the other hand, once we've acknowledged it and pointed to some of its manifestations, we might run the danger of overascribing importance, to the detriment of attending to someone's Other-consciousness. Whether we ascribe or deny self-consciousness to another, or to a text, we posit ourself as a suject who is supposed to know, and even know something about someone else's consciousness; especially if we try to take this position beyond basic denial or ascription, it can be problematical. [log in to unmask]