- To introduce history conceptions of identity
- To introduce Foucault's discourse methodology
- To place and critique contemporary practice within these frameworks, and to consider their validity
- To consider postmodern theories of identity as fluid and constructed (in particular Zygmunt Bauman)
- To consider identity today, especially in the digital domain
Theories of Identity
- Essentialism (traditional approach) - genetic thing that can't be changed
- Our biological make up makes us who we are
Phrenology
If you're animal area is bigger than you should be, you will be considered as socially unacceptable and will probably have criminal tendencies.
Cesare Lombroso (1835-1909) - Founder of positive criminology - the notion that criminal tendencies are inherited
Historical Phases of Identity
Douglas Kellner - Media Culture: Cultural Studies, Identity and Politics between the Modern and the Postmodern, 1992
- Pre Modern Identity - personal identity is stable - defined by long standing roles
- Modern Identity - modern societies being to offer a wide range of social roles
Pre Modern Identity
Institutions determined identity
Marriage, church etc
Farm workers (landed gentry), soldiers (the state), factory worker (industrial capitalism), housewife (patriarchy), gentleman (patriarchy) and husband-wife (marriage/church) are secure identities
Modern Identity
Charles Baudelaire - The Painter of Modern Life (1863)
Thorstein Veblem - Theory of the Leisure Class (1899)
Baudelair introduces concept of the flaneur - a gentleman-stroller. They're out and about, being seen and it is important to be that. Walking around in his best gear
Conspicious consumption of valuable goods is a means of reputatbility to the gentleman of leisure. It's about showing off wealth in terms of fashion, technology etc
Gustave Caillebotte - Paris Street, Rainy Day 1877
The trickle down theory is that the upper classes wear a certain type of clothes which represent their class, the lower class aspire to be those people and try to imitate them. They start getting cheap knock-offs, so on the face of it they resemble the upper classes. The upper classes then try to move away from this, and change their style. This is pretty much how the fashion system works these days.
This is a quote about the anxiety we feel about identity:
'The feeling of isolation is rarely as decisive and intense when one actually finds oneself physically alone, as when one is a stranger without relations, among many physically close persons, at a party, on a train, or in the traffic of a large city' - Georg Simmel
Post Modern Identity
Michael Foucault
'Discourse analysis'
Identity is constructed out of the discourses culturally available to us
What is a discourse?
'... a set of recurring statements that define a particular cultural object (e.g. madness, criminality and sexuality) and provide concepts and terms through which such an object an be studied and discussed.' - Caballaro 2001
Possible Discourses
- Age
- Class
- Gender
- Nationality
- Race/ethnicity
- Sexual orientation
- Education
- Income
- Etc
Discourses to be considered
- Class
- Nationality
- Race/Ethnicity
- Gender and sexuality
Race and Ethnicity
Chris Ofili - No Woman, No Cry 1998
He is a significant painter for black culture. He looks at perception of black people and their place in society. He props his paintings on elephant dung, a symbol of Africa.
Gillian Wearing, playing on stereotypes that black men are well hung
Signs that say what you want them to say and not sigs that say what someone else wnats you to say, 1992
Gender/Sexuality
Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Stills, 1977-80
Masquerade and the mask of femininity
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