Abstract
Identity: Representations and Practices offers an interdisciplinary approach to identity studies, a focus that the editors argue ‘[results] in a unified body of knowledge beyond that of individuals and disciplines’ (p. 18). The contributing authors take a non-essentialist approach, assuming that identity is not a personal characteristic to be discovered but a construction. The book’s chapters therefore connect through their efforts to examine how and by whom identities are actively built (p. 17).
In Chapter 1, Holliday describes how individuals carry aspects of their cultural identities across borders and into new environments. Holliday further explains that these individuals can become ‘critical cosmopolitan actors’ who resist cultural prejudices and challenge dominant discourses that essentialise groups of people (p. 36). Chapter 2 continues to question how cultural identities move across time and space by examining representations of Basque-American identity. Through her analysis of different cultural practices including dance, literature and the formation of online communities, Madinabeitia maintains that the notion of homeland is no longer central to the construction of Basque identity in the American West.
In a similar vein, Chapter 3 questions what cultural practices can tell us about place-based identities. Using data collected through semi-structured interviews, Svab and Stankovic show that the Slovenian custom of removing shoes and changing into slippers at home serves a practical rather than aesthetic purpose. According to the authors, Slovenians’ tendency to describe slipper-wearing in terms of practicality indicates that they share a lower-class habitus, or set of shared tastes, that favours practicality (p. 84). Furthermore, they explain that these findings also point to the absence of a middle-class habitus, one that values beautiful things regardless of their function. Svab and Stankovic claim that this finding can be attributed to Slovenia’s historically ‘peasant culture’, which created a national identity ‘that was both recognizably rural and distinctively anti-urban’ (p. 86).
Both Chapters 4 and 5 discuss how larger patterns in identity construction can be better understood by examining discourse at a micro level. In the fourth chapter, Aguiar uses discourse analysis to examine inaugural addresses given by Portuguese presidents during the 1933–1974 period of military dictatorship. Aguiar’s analysis illustrates how a dictatorial ethos is created through complex micro-images. He further shows that presidents exerted authority subtly through their discourse rather than in an authoritarian manner. Ludewig’s Chapter 5 broadens the scope of the book by examining how identity is constructed among academics, specifically in the field of literary criticism. Ludewig analyses articles written by three affiliates of the New Criticism movement in literary theory to identify key semiotic moves that provide insight into how intellectual movements claim legitimacy. By examining the micro-identities that emerge in the New Critics’ genred practice of academic writing, Ludewig argues that scholars in a shared discipline should not be viewed as ‘a monolithic group of practitioners’ (p. 129).
In Chapter 6, Krebber uses Systemic Functional Grammar to analyse interviews with Portuguese women. The women’s responses reveal how progressive views on family structure exist alongside more traditional perspectives on gender roles. Although these findings may indicate that the interviewees have not internalised the ideal of gender equality, they also demonstrate how people consider and work through contradictions as they craft identities (p. 169). This chapter provides a particularly telling example of how individuals do not simply communicate predetermined identities through language, but instead actively negotiate conflicts to construct discursive representations of social roles.
Chapter 7 investigates how young people form social relationships on Facebook. By analysing questionnaire responses, Gogalis identifies a correlation between the participants’ number of Facebook friends and the amount of friends they have in real life. In addition, the study shows that the qualities of a friendship, including the amount of self-disclosure and trust, are higher in value on Facebook than in real life (p. 190). In Chapter 8, Medvedec applies the concept of cultural creolisation to Renato Baretić’s novel The Eighth Commissioner. Through a close reading of the novel, Medvedec offers a detailed description of the setting, the island of Trečić, and the creolised, composite identity of its people. Medvedec maintains that cultural creolisation, a concept typically used in studies of the Caribbean, can be extended to develop a better understanding of other parts of the world, particularly those characterised by composite cultures.
Overall, Identity: Representations and Practices features a broad range of scholarship that suggests how and why identity is a fruitful concept for analysis across disciplinary boundaries. Nevertheless, readers who are particularly interested in discourse studies may struggle to find a sense of cohesiveness across chapters or a clear conceptualisation of the identity/language relation. Some of the authors specifically analyse how identity is discursively constructed, but in other chapters the links between identity and discourse are less clear. The third chapter, for example, links slipper-wearing to a Slovenian identity rooted in rural history, but the chapter does not explicitly address how this identity is actively crafted through discourse. Interviewees describe wearing slippers as a cultural practice, but the connections between the practice and national identity are left implied in the data. Similarly, while Chapter 7 reveals interesting findings concerning the depth and significance of online relationships, the role of discourse in the study is not prioritised, and the findings are more explicitly relevant to the field of sociology.
Although certain chapters may therefore be less applicable for readers with discipline-specific interests, the book’s interdisciplinary nature is one of the key strengths of the volume. Collectively, the chapters provide evidence of a continued interest in identity as a relevant topic of scholarly inquiry. The book therefore encourages readers to think beyond the borders of individual disciplines and to develop new approaches to studying this critical concept.