cultural studies lecture 7 identity

7/29/2019 Cultural Studies Lecture 7 IDENTITY

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IDENTITY


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IDENTITY

They define who something is in terms ofa trait (a physical feature, a belief, etc.)

They place individuals into groups

Identity is won at the price of reducing theindividual

Identities are not given in terms of what

individuals are as a whole Identity anchors who you are to a part of

yourself


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IDENTITY

Identities are culturally inflected (African

American, black or nigger)

Identity words are used affirmatively or

prejudicially Individuals differ in terms of degree of intensity

with which they connect to particular identities

(dis-identification transsexuals)

Negative images can cause psychic damage


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IDENTITY

Identities can be given or inherited and

chosen

Identities leave spaces outside of

themselves (private moods, desires,

thoughts, etc)

Identity politics (civil movement right,

feminism)


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IDENTITY

The Enlightenment religion and traditionno longer have social and politicalauthority

The normativity of white man isconsolidated by default

Identity politics fueled by recognition

The agency of the community andindividuals involved or the larger socialconditions?


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IDENTITY

WASPS decline:

- Japanese victories in Asia

- US military dependency on AfricanAmericans

- the Holocaust

- Vietnamese communism


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IDENTITY

Feminism

Affluence

Devices for washing, cleaning, cooking

Culture and media industries accelerate

segmentation and identity formation


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IDENTITY

Difficulties of identity politics

1. erase internal differences

2. identities are essences

3. work by exclusion

4. overlook actually lived identities (paid work)

5. organisation is neglected

6. invent legitimating histories (the Scottishtartan and kilt)


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IDENTITY

Stuart Hall unities in difference

Hybridity the hybrid subaltern (Homi

Bhabha)

Groups and individuals share several

identities (the term black in Britain)

Shortcomings: power of family, kin group,nation, gender

The logic of struggle


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MULTICULTURALISM

Irving Kristol:- What radicals blandly call

multiculturalism is as much a war against the

West as Nazism and Stalinism ever were

Le Pen, the Republikaner, Enoch Powell thecontinuation of Carribean and South Asian

immigration would lead to anarchy and worse

Multiculturalism means different things in Europe

and USA


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MULTICULTURALISM

Arguments against multiculturalism:

- a return to cultural barbarism lowering ofstandards it exists in the most developed

states Illiberal coercion limits to individual freedom

(the law in Quebec)

Leads to a fragmentation of languages, cultures

an religions within a nation (national territoriesafter the Thirty Years War had to include severalreligious confessions)


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MULTICULTURALISM

Modern societies are built around meanings andvalues that are not share by all members (e.g.

American culture)

Multiculturalism grants full citizenship

Contributes to ones heritage In Europe after WW 1 the League of Nations

ratifies minority rights

It proved unforceable

Statelessness After the 1950s large scale immigration a more

rigid sense of traditional culture


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MULTICULTURALISM

Multiculturalism loosens the grip of

hegemonic groups

States seem to promote multiculturalism to

exhibit tolerance (ethnic foods and

restaurants)

The Benetton effect

diversity politics applied for commercial

ends


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MULTICULTURALISM

States also promote multiculturalism to

make their cities attractive to mobile

companies

In the real world multicultures contain a

variety of perspectives and values

Recently it has been replaced by cultural

diversity

It fights prejudice, invisibility and exclusion


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MULTICULTURALISM

It addresses the issue of survival ifparticular cultures within advancedcommercial media culture (the Hmong

language in US Midwest) State intervention may be required

Multiculturalism challenges a core

European nation can different groups ofcitizens be treated differently? (ChineseNew Year, the Islamic law)


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MULTICULTURALISM

States that do not require common law(Australia)

In countries with relatively recent histories

of settlement and colonisation certaincultures may be lost

2 important factors:

Increased mobility, the corporatewelcoming of difference and otherness oncommercial grounds


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RACE

Race is a dangerous product of prejudiceor false thinking

Races consists of sharing particular kinds

of personalities, values and dispositionsbound to particular body types, oftenmarked by skin colour

Race is based on look, visual difference It has played an important part in human

history


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RACE

Racist concepts

Clinton has been our first black president

(Toni Morrison)

Race becomes a cultural attribute

History of European racism

Disraeli race is everything, there is noother truth (conjoins nature and society)


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RACE

Darwinism On the Origin of Species

Society is the outcome of invariable

biological laws

African Americans, groups of European

dispersed around the globe

Demonised half castes Threatened white workers

Scientific racism eugenics


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RACE

Stereotypes All Africans have got rhythm

Indians are lazy, Asian femininity

Groups within racialised communitieswhom stereotypes cannot cover become

invisible (e.g. African American upper

middle class)

Race a biological concept, ethnicity a

cultural one


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cultural studies lecture 7 identity

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