“I AM LARGE, I CONTAIN MULTITUDES”: IDENTITY, ALTERITY AND THE TRANSITIONAL SELF
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47743/asas-2021-2-655Keywords:
identity and alterity, self-presentation, external evaluation, belonging, alter- ego, becoming.Abstract
What is identity and what makes us be who we are? The concept of identity has changed considerably over the past century, the subject finding itself at the intersection of nation, gender, the rise of multiculturalism and colonial history. While we are born with no self- awareness and our first point of reference is the world outside us, navigating existence involves a constant self-analysis and the realisation that any attempt at defining ourselves will result in newer interrogations. Aiming to provide some guidance to this relentless quest by introducing few of the key concepts used in identity research, the present paper addresses the fluidity of the self by focusing on the identity-alterity nexus and by prioritising the ‘becoming’ over the ‘being’. Identity is, thus, always shifting and never a given; it is a transitional process oscillating between self-identification and identification made by the others, a puzzle whose interlocked pieces can be moved around and change in meaning.
References
• Baumann, G. (1996). Contesting Culture: Discourses of Identity in Multi-Ethnic London. Cambridge University Press.
• Baumann, G. (1997). Dominant and Demotic Discourses of Culture: Their Relevance to Multi-Ethnic Alliances. In Werbner, P. and Modood, T. (Eds.), Debating Cultural Hybridity: Multicultural Identities and the Politics of Anti- racism. Zed.
• Camilleri, C. (1990). Strategies identitaires. P.U.F.
• Dubar, C. (2003). Criza identităţilor. Interpretarea unei mutaţii. Editura Ştiinţa.
• Freud, S. (1960). The Ego and the Id. W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
• Goffman, E. (1956). The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Doubleday.
• Liiceanu, G. (2011). Ce ne facem cu calul negru? Despre căderea în trup, dragoste şi ipocrizie (carte audio). Humanitas.
• MacIntyre, A. (1981). After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory. Duckworth.
• Petrilli, S. & Ponzio, A. (2019). Identity and Alterity of the Text in Translation A Semioethic Approach. International Journal of Semiotics and Visual Rhetoric, Vol. 3, No. 1, p.48.
• Pollock, D. (1995). Masks and the Semiotics of Identity. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Vol. 1, No. 3, pp. 581-597.
• Putnam, F.W. (1989). Diagnosis and Treatment of Multiple Personality Disorder. Guilford Press.
• Scott, S. (2015). Negotiating Identity. Symbolic Interactionist Approaches to Social Identity. Polity Press.
• Snyder, M. (1974). Self-Monitoring of Expressive Behaviour. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 30, pp. 526-537.
• Tajfel, H. (1978). Interindividual and intergroup behaviour. In Tajfel, H. (Ed.) Differentiation between groups: Studies in the social psychology of intergroup relations. Academic Press.
• Taussig, M. (1993). Mimesis and Alterity. Routledge.
• Zavalloni, M. & Luis-Guerin, C. (1984). Identitésociale et conscience. Introduction á L’ego-écologie. Les Press de L'Universite de Montreal.
