identity and subjectivity
DESCRIPTION
the description of Identity and SubjectivityTRANSCRIPT
Cultural studyPresented by Zaenul Wafa
IDENTITY AND SUBJECTIVITY
ZAENUL WAFA
SUBJECTIVITY
AND
IDENTITY
SUBJECTIVITY
the condition of being a person and the processes by which we become a person; that is, how we are constituted as subjects (biologically and culturally) and how we experience ourselves
SELF-IDENTITY
the verbal conceptions we hold about ourselves and our emotional identification with those self-descriptions;
SOCIAL IDENTITY the expectations and opinions that others have of us.
TERMS
identity is a process through unconscious system
Essentialism : identity is a basic reflection of us ; masculine, feminism, Asian
Anti-essentialism : identity is flexible, it is formed by discourse, cultural in time and place
SELF-IDENTITY
GIDDEN
PROJECTBuilds
The mode of thinking
about ourselves
What we think, we want to beas
The Trajectory our hoped for future
describes
terms
SUBJECTIVITY
the condition of being a person and the processes by which we become a person; that is, how we are constituted as subjects (biologically and culturally) and how we experience ourselves (process of being person; how we are formed/labeled as subject) e.g: partai wong cilik, orang pinter minum tolak angin.
SELF-IDENTITY
the verbal conceptions we hold about ourselves and our emotionalidentification with those self-descriptions;
our cloth we put on is the self description of us
SOCIAL IDENTITY the expectations and opinions that others have of us.
Personhood as a cultural production
• For cultural studies what it means to be a person is social and cultural 'all the way down” That is, identities are wholly social constructions and cannot 'exist' outside of cultural representations. They are the consequence of acculturation.
Identity is best understood not as a fixed entity but as an emotionally charged discursive
description of ourselves that is subject to change.
Self-identity as a project
• Giddens (1991), self-identity is constituted by the ability to sustain a narrative about the self. This includes the capacity to build up a consistent feeling of biographical continuity.• Identity stories attempt to answer the critical questions What to do? How to act? Who to be?
identity is a mode of thinking about ourselves. Of course, what we think we are changes from circumstance to circumstance in time and space.
Social identities
What we are in our society byAssociating with society (acculturation)
The enlightenment
subject
A subject identity is formed through tendency to use (reason, consciousness and action) to decide identity not taking for granted
Sociological subject
Subject identity is formed by interaction between ourselves and environment
Postmodern subject
Subject identity is not flexible. It can change based on place and time.“the identity that someone brings since born to death actually is because of construction of self-narration that holds and believes“The decentered or postmodern self involves the subject
in shifting, fragmented and multiple identities. Persons are composed not of one but of several, sometimes
contradictory, identities”
SOCIAL THEORY AND FRACTURED SUBJECT
MARXISM
PSYCHOANALYSIS
FEMINISM
THE CENTRALITY OF LANGUAGE
THE WORK OF FOUCAULT
MARXISM
Subject is formed by ideology (world view)
I am male and she is female; I am black and she is white;
I am a liberal and she is a nationalist
The general point here is that subjects are formed through difference
as constituted by the play of signifiers.
Thus, what we are is in part constituted by what we are not. In this context,
Hall's Marxism points to the historically
specific character of identity and to a fractured subject formed in ideology.
psychoanalysis
• the great strength of psychoanalysis lies in its rejection of the fixed nature of subjects and sexuality in favor of exploring the construction and formation of subjectivity.
Feminism and difference
• Feminism can be understood both as a diverse body of theoretical work and as a social and political movement. In either case, feminism has sought to examine the position of women in society and to further their interests.
sex and gender are social and cultural constructions that are not reducible to biology. This is an anti-essentialist stance where femininity and masculinity are not essential universal and eternal categories;
rather, they are understood to be discursive constructions.
language is not a mirror that reflects an independent object world ('reality'). Rather, it is a resource that 'lends form' to ourselves and our world. Here, identity is to be understood not as a fixed, eternal thing, nor as an inner essence of a person to which words refer. Instead the concept of identity refers to a regulated way of 'speaking' about persons. The idea that identities are discursive constructions is supported by a view of language in which there are no essences to which language refers and therefore no essential identities.
LANGUAGE AND IDENTITY
Language does not express an already existent 'true self' but brings the self into being. Language generates meanings through a series of unstable and relational differences. However, it is also regulated within discourses that define, construct and produce their objects of knowledge. Consequently, what we can say about the identity characteristics of, for example, a man is socially limited. Identities are discursive constructions that do not refer to an already existent 'thing'. Identities are both unstable and temporarily stabilized by social practice and regular, predictable behavior. This is a view influenced, as Hall argued, by the work of Foucault.
look through any women's magazine. what subject positions are constructed for women?
look through a magazine that we judge to be aimed at men. what subject position are constructed for men?
Describes how such subject positions are achieved
The articulated self
For Stuart Hall, the cumulative effect of Marxism, psychoanalysis, feminism,
contemporary theories of language and the work of Foucault is to deconstruct the
essentialist notion of the unified agent, that is, a subject who possesses a fixed identity as a
referent for the pronoun 'I'. Instead, anti-essentialist conceptions of identity within cultural
studies stress the decentred subject: the self as made up of multiple and changeable
identities.
AGENCY AND THE POLITICS OF IDENTITY
Discourse (social, cultural)
Power ( knowledge usage – soft forces not physical oppression )
SubjectDecodile body
Subjects are understood as discursive constructions and the products of power
The process of reconstructing new language
A steadfast critic of Foucault for erasing agents fromstructuralism
STRUCTURE“The place of
social practice”
Giddens Language
Structure not only limit but also enable subject to act
Subject is not a Wayang in the hand of Dalang that is determined the
actor
Foucolt reconstruct it as
CONCEPT OF AGENCY
Freedom
Creativity
the very possibility of change through the actions of free agentsAs agent who has
Subject
Finally, Freedom , creativity is determined.However, agency is cultural and rational way to understand ourselves to make a choice
Feminism (Charles Fourier, the founder)the consciousness to change a condition (oppression) to get fair system in life (social, culture) to man
In general, a collection of discourse to promote, describes and analyze and look for solution of woman (problem)
Sex is biological thing (body)Gender is the assumptions and social practice that control or construct from woman and men
This picture is of a demonstration for women's rights in Iran. What does the symbolism of the image
try to convey?
Many feminists see the wearing of the veil and the Burka as a sign of oppression, but some Islamic
women suggest that it protects women. What arguments can you construct that support both sides of
the debate?
RortyFeminism how to redefine women not focus on how to be women
Identity concerns both self-identity and social identity. It is about the personal and the social. It is about ourselves and our relations with others. It has been argued that identity is wholly cultural in character and does not exist outside of its representation in cultural discourses. Identity is not a fixed thing that we possess but a becoming. It is a strategic cut or temporary stabilization in language and practice. We may understand identity as regulatory discourses to which we are attached through processes of identification or emotional investment.
The self has been understood as multiple, fragmented and decentred. This is an outcome of:the instability of language;our constitution of multiple discourses
SUMMARY