An examination and discussion of the public and the hidden discourses (transcripts) of those who wield power and of those who feign deference to it. Examples are drawn from literature, history and politics to illustrate the many guises the interaction of such discourses can take.

The purpose of this book is to suggest how we might more successfully read, interpret, and understand the often fugitive political conduct of subordinate groups. A comparison of the hidden transcript of the weak with that of the powerful and of both hidden transcripts to the public transcript of power relations offers a substantially new way of understanding resistance to domination.