Identity and ModernismWCS 2013English I King

Identity According to Merriam-Webster • a : sameness of essential or generic character in different

instances• b : sameness in all that constitutes the objective reality of

a thing : ONENESS• 2• a : the distinguishing character or personality of an

individual: INDIVIDUALITY• b : the relation established by psychological identification• 3• : the condition of being the same with something

described or asserted <establish the identity of stolen goods>

Personal Identity vs. Social Identity • Personal Identity=stable

• Often assumed to mediate between social identities and make sense of them

• An “identity crisis” is a crisis rather than an “identity opportunity” because personal identity demands proper and unimpeded expression. It is a value, something we prize. This sense of identity as ours implies an immutable essence unchanged by physical development or external circumstances.

• Social Identity=changes • Can shift throughout the day, what allows us to move

coherently from one to another is often imagined to be our personal identity, or “who we are”—our constant

Social Categories and Identity Politics • In reference to social categories, identity has long

carried the meaning of relational and mutable identifications, actuated either by the individuals’ chosen identifications or by others who label individuals or groups based on characteristics and behaviors that seem shared.

• Identity Politics (women’s movement, civil rights movement, gay rights struggles, New Left, etc.) • “a person or group of people can suffer real damage, real

distortion, if the people or society around them mirror back to them a conflicting or demeaning or contemptible picture of themselves.

• Social struggles for justice, equity, and rights

Thoughts on Identity • Identities are not really “our own” and we are not

really “what we are”; rather , we are how we identify—a process that is mutable and changeable

• We see a persistent desire for identity, however much identity may be constructed, illusory, and unstable

Self vs. Identity • What is the ‘self’?• How is it formed, does it emerge?• What is ‘identity’?• How is it formed?• How does the self inform identity?• How does identity influence the ‘self’?

What Are the Different Types of Social Identity? • 1. Gender• 2. Race• 3. Ethnicity• 4. Religion• 5. Familial• 6. Materialism• 7. Class (Socio-economic status)

• What else?

Gender Identity

Gender Identity

Gender Identity

Race vs. Ethnicity • The traditional definition of race and ethnicity is

related to biological and sociological factors respectively. 

• Race refers to a person's physical appearance, such as skin color, eye color, hair color, bone/jaw structure etc.

• Ethnicity, on the other hand, relates to cultural factors such as nationality, culture, ancestry, language and beliefs

Materialism • a : a theory that physical matter is the only or

fundamental reality and that all being and processes and phenomena can be explained as manifestations or results of matter

• b : a doctrine that the only or the highest values or objectives lie in material well-being and in the furtherance of material progress

• c : a doctrine that economic or social change is materially caused — compare HISTORICAL MATERIALISM

• : a preoccupation with or stress upon material rather than intellectual or spiritual things

Questions About Identity • Which social aspects are most significant to the

formation of your individual identity? • Which aspects of your identity are you still

developing?

Definition of Modernism• A catchall term for any kind of literary production

in the interwar period that deals with the modern world.

• Work that represents the transformation of traditional society under the pressures of modernity, and that break down traditional literary forms in doing so

• High Modernism--• An experience of loss—represents the modern world as a

scene of ruin

Characteristics of Modernism• What it omits—explanations, interpretations, connections,

summaries, and distancing that provide continuity, perspective, and security in traditional literature

• Shifts in perspective, voice, and tone• Rhetoric will be understand, ironic• Suggests rather than asserts• Makes use of symbols and images instead of statements• Elements will be drawn from diverse areas of experience • The effect will be surprising, shocking, and unsettling• Asks the reader to participate • Language is colloquial, slangy; the popular • Social commentary and satire

Modernism• Co-existence of the past and present• Psychological focus• Unreliable narrator• American Literature in these decades (1914-1945)

registers all sides of the era’s struggles and debates, while sharing a commitment to explore the many meanings of modernity and express them in forms appropriate to modern vision.

• Some writers rejoiced while others lamented; some anticipated future utopias and others believed that civilization had collapsed.

• Possibility of creating something entirely new.

Conflicts of Modernity• 1. The uses of literary tradition • 2. The place of popular culture in serious literature• 3. How engaged in political and social struggle a

work of literature ought to be—how far literature should exert itself for (or against) social transformation

Text and Context • The Norton Anthology of American Literature 1914

-1945 Chart

Nude Descending a Staircase • New York Armory

Show of 1913• Cubist painting• Marcel Duchamp

Works Cited • Keywords for American Cultural Studies. Ed.

Burgett and Hendler. New York and London: NYU, 2007.

• The Norton Anthology of American Literature (1914-1945)