Intersubjectivity, self-reflexivity and agency: Narrating about ‘self’ and ‘other’ in feminist research

•Representations of narratives of subaltern 'others' need to respect people’s agency.•In this article I shed light on the process of intersubjective knowledge production.•Subjectivities ascribed to me also impact the narration and are part of this text.•Self-doubt led me back to the field to involve research participant in my analyses.•Self-reflexivity helps to unpack how subjectivity impacts the framing of narratives.

SynopsisThis article focuses on the question how, from a perspective of responsible feminist epistemology, we can improve our representations of the narratives of subaltern ‘others’ with respect to people's agency. In doing so I focus on two narrations by a Kikuyu grandmother in a Nairobi ghetto, and on the methodological and epistemological challenges her texts posed to me. I will shed light on the process of intersubjective knowledge production, focussing on how the subjectivities ascribed to me impacted the process of narration and have to be analysed as part of the narrative text. I will explain how self-doubt led me back to the field, and encouraged me to extend my conversation with the Kikuyu grandmother to the phase of interpretation and analyses. I will show how I use the notion of self-reflexivity to help me unpack the way my own subjectivity impinged on my framing of her narratives.