Aspects Of Identity Formation Research Articles

Marketing research agency, creative agency and client relationships: a study of relationship tensions

PurposeTo this date, research on tensions has been carried out on business networks and value co-creation, with no studies exploring tensions within the marketing services context. This study aims to use the three tension categories proposed by Toth et al. (2018) and Pressey and Vanharanta (2006) to address this gap by identifying the tensions experienced in the market research agency (MRA), creative agency (CA) and client relationship, as well as the processes that increase or minimize these tensions.Design/methodology/approachA total of 25 in-depth interviews were carried out with MRA, CA and client employees. NVivo 12 was used to conduct a thematic analysis to identify the overarching processes that influenced tensions.FindingsSix second-order codes were identified, designating processes that exacerbated or minimized each of the three tensions experienced. Two new processes were identified (“adopting governance processes” and “aspects of identity formation”) which have not been previously reported. An empirical framework was developed pinpointing processes that influenced each tension category, also highlighting complex interdependencies between behavioral, emotional and structural tensions.Originality/valueThis study presents the perspectives of all actors within the marketing services triad providing a more nuanced understanding of tensions at the triadic level, as previous literature predominantly focused either on dyads or on networks. Furthermore, this study highlights important interdependencies between tension categories, providing novel contributions, as well as directions for future research.

Dress and Labor: An Intersectional Interpretation of Clothing and Adornment Artifacts Recovered from the Levi Jordan Plantation

Through an examination of clothing, adornment, and hygiene artifacts recovered from the Quarters area of the Levi Jordan Plantation, this article examines how racial, gendered, and classed operations of power and oppression shaped African American women’s sartorial practices, as an aspect of identity formation, during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Texas. Through a Black feminist framework, this article focuses on the ways African American women dressed their bodies for the types of labor they performed to discuss how they negotiated ideologies of race, gender, and class, that shaped hegemonic notions of femininity during the post-emancipation era.

Listening to voices: understanding and self-management of auditory verbal hallucinations in young adults

AimsAuditory Verbal Hallucinations (AVH) are a hallmark of psychosis, but affect many other clinical populations. Patients’ understanding and self-management of AVH may differ between diagnostic groups, change over time, and influence clinical outcomes.We aimed to explore patients’ understanding and self-management of AVH in a young adult clinical population.Method35 participants reporting frequent AVH were purposively sampled from a youth mental health service, to capture experiences across psychosis and non-psychosis diagnoses. Diary and photo-elicitation methodologies were used – participants were asked to complete diaries documenting experiences of AVH, and to take photographs representing these experiences. In-depth, unstructured interviews were held, using participant-produced materials as a topic guide. Conventional content analysis was conducted, deriving results from the data in the form of themes.ResultThree themes emerged: (1)Searching for answers, forming identities – voice-hearers sought to explain their experiences, resulting in the construction of identities for voices, and descriptions of relationships with them. These identities were drawn from participants’ life-stories (e.g., reflecting trauma), and belief-systems (e.g., reflecting supernatural beliefs, or mental illness). Some described this process as active / volitional. Participants described re-defining their own identities in relation to those constructed for AVH (e.g. as diseased, 'chosen', or persecuted), others considered AVH explicitly as aspects of, or changes in, their personality.(2)Coping strategies and goals – patients’ self-management strategies were diverse, reflecting the diverse negative experiences of AVH. Strategies were related to a smaller number of goals, e.g. distraction, soothing overwhelming emotions, 'reality-checking', and retaining agency.(3)Outlook – participants formed an overall outlook reflecting their self-efficacy in managing AVH. Resignation and hopelessness in connection with disabling AVH are contrasted with outlooks of “acceptance” or integration, which were described as positive, ideal, or mature.ConclusionTrans-diagnostic commonalities in understanding and self-management of AVH are highlighted - answer-seeking and identity-formation processes; a diversity of coping strategies and goals; and striving to accept the symptom. Descriptions of “voices-as-self”, and dysfunctional relationships with AVH, could represent specific features of voice-hearing in personality disorder, whereas certain supernatural/paranormal identities and explanations were clearly delusional. However, no aspect of identity-formation was completely unique to psychosis or non-psychosis diagnostic groups. The identity-formation process, coping strategies, and outlooks can be seen as a framework both for individual therapies and further research.

Foregrounding Boundaries Between Self and Other in South Africa: A Comparative Analysis of The Lostness of Alice, The Good Doctor and Lost Ground

Summary The article considers the descendants of the original white settlers’ experience of space and place in terms of the perception of self and other as represented by the male protagonists who feature in three comparatively under-read novels of the post- apartheid period: John Conyngham’s The Lostness of Alice (1998), Damon Galgut’s The Good Doctor (2003) and Michiel Heyns’s Lost Ground (2011). After the election of a black-majority government, many white South African men feel that they can no longer negotiate a place that supplies them with a stable and secure sense of self. The novels’ three subjects, who exemplify the psychological condition of these men, endeavour to discover who they are and where they belong. Through the traversal of boundaries, the protagonists make connections with the outside world and the different other. The authors, likewise, stretch boundaries by implementing the narrative frame of the detective novel. To foreground the characters’ search for selfhood, belonging and meaning, reference is made in the article to aspects of identity formation in relation to the other, such as place, and the expansion of place by the navigation of boundaries.

ФОРМУВАННЯ ЖИТТЄВОЇ ПОЗИЦІЇНА РІЗНИХ ЕТАПАХ СОЦІАЛІЗАЦІЇ ДОРОСЛОЇ ОСОБИСТОСТІ

The topicality of studying the life position in psychology is determined by a paradigmatic transition to an understanding of the individual as a self-determined and self-organized structure. The purpose of the article is to theoretically substantiate and empirically determine the peculiarities of the adult life position formation. The theoretical analysis of the problem of life position formation at different stages of socialization is started in the paper. The following methods were used to realize the purpose of the research: analysis of research sources, comparison, classification, generalization and systematization of scientific data, conversation, questioning and testing. The obtained data were subjected to mathematical and statistical processing. The scientific attention is shown to be focused mainly on three determinative periods of life: the formation of an unconscious life scenario in early relationships with parents, a conscious self-identification during the transition from youth to adulthood and the experience of an existential crisis of the midlife. The crisis aspects of identity formation have priority in researches, while gradual, evolutionary changes in the life position (as an indispensable feature of personal development and the enrichment of one's own life philosophy) remain unaddressed. The results of the comparative empirical research in two age groups representing an early (25–39 years) and late (40–59 years) adult population with a total of 70 people are presented. The diagnostics of life orientations, existential fullness, basic values, and psychological well-being was executed. The obtained results show that the level of subject activity, the sense of fullness of one's own life and its profuseness with meaning has the same expressiveness in different age groups. However, the qualitative differences in the characteristics of subject orientation are identified, allowing us to conclude about the gradual unfolding of the life position in different periods of adulthood. The conducted empirical study showed that the transition from early to late adulthood (passing the clandmark stage of 40 years) is accompanied by the changes in life position that manifests itself in the exteriorization of the control locus and creatively-transformative life activity, aimed at knowledge and perfection of their inner world. The basic values profile of different age groups is elaborated, the leading role of social orientation is elucidated. The correlations between the components of the life position and the psychological well-being of the individual are identified and explained. The conclusions are made regarding the nature of the qualitative evolution of the adult life position.

FATTA! - En företagsliknande förening och Facebook-rörelse med folkupplysande ambition

The purpose of this article is to explore engagement and organization in contemporary civil society by analyzing how a social media campaign, Fatta, develops into a movement and an association. Fatta (roughly: Grasp this) works for the establishment of Swedish legislation regarding sexual consent and can be seen as part of a global movement against men’s violence towards women. The study, guided by ethnographic and netnographic design, followed the association for six months on social media and at physical meetings. Results show identity, representation, advocacy and lobbyism to be central themes. Results also indicate that the association can be seen as a form of socially committed advertising business where branding is central. Fatta constitutes an example of a movement functioning in a context where citizenship is no longer based on responsibilities and participation in political parties but is instead centered around aspects of identity formation and self-realization.

Ambivalent Embrace: Jewish Upward Mobility in Postwar America by Rachel Kranson

Reviewed by: Ambivalent Embrace: Jewish Upward Mobility in Postwar America by Rachel Kranson Kathleen A. Laughlin (bio) Ambivalent Embrace: Jewish Upward Mobility in Postwar America. By Rachel Kranson. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2017. 232 pp. Rachel Kranson’s engaging cultural history of Jewish life in postwar America complements revisionist histories of the postwar years that interrogate the notion that the 1950s was an idyllic time characterized by an easy conformity and uncritical ideological consensus. She carefully [End Page 584] explores the underlying tensions within the upwardly mobile Jewish community, which eventually contributed to the emergence of a Jewish counterculture in the late 1960s and 1970s. In a search for authenticity, when an increasing number of Jews were joining the ranks of the suburban middle class, postwar Jewish thought leaders romanticized a Jewish cultural life shaped by social isolation and economic vulnerability. Jews coming of age in the 1960s, empowered and inspired by wider critiques of conformity promulgated by social movements, especially from within the New Left, were similarly eager to construct an authentic Jewish identity. Just as historians of African Americans, gays and lesbians, and women have discovered preconditions to the activism of the 1960s and 1970s in nascent critiques of the white supremacy, heteronormative dominance, and oppressive gender ideals in postwar America, Kranson sees continuity from critiques of upward mobility in the 1950s to Jewish countercultural impulses in the 1970s. Relying on the works and actions of Jewish leaders, Kranson examines how the process of upward mobility, manifested in a migration from cities to suburbs, raised concerns about the direction of Jewish identity. Employing statistical measures for upward mobility in categories such as educational attainment, entrance to the professions, income, and migration to the suburbs, Kranson implies that Jewish life in postwar America was a profound change that inspired romantic visions of a Jewish identity forged in the past. While “newly prosperous Jews used their growing resources to transform Jewish culture and practice, creating new modes of ritual and socialization that harmonized with their middle-class standing,” Jewish leaders attempted to forge a more legitimate Jewish identity that evoked the isolation and poverty experienced in the shtetl and immigrant slums in the U.S. as well as in the creation of a separate state of Israel as a homeland for Holocaust survivors (3). The idealization of these distinctive historical moments in Jewish history changed the way Jewish culture was understood and taught in America during the postwar years. A plethora of scholarly works of Jewish history explored life in Eastern Europe and America’s immigrant communities. Leaders contrasted the intense spirituality of shtetl life, the labor activism of immigrants, and the nation-building in Israel with the banality of suburban culture. Separate chapters consider how anxieties around Jewish life in America were displayed within several aspects of identity formation: religious practices, political affiliations, and conceptions of gender. Kranson uses one congregation as a case study to illustrate the ambivalence surrounding the suburban synagogue building boom. Congregation Solel took several steps to avoid undermining its longstanding spiritual mission in [End Page 585] urban Chicago. But Kranson acknowledges that most synagogues did not go to such lengths to retain ties to the immigrant past, which begs the question of just how much angst suburban Jews felt about the purpose of their congregations. She similarly focuses on the criticism of a select group of pundits who feared that suburbanization would lead to the ascendancy of conservative politics, even though opinion polls revealed that suburban Jews did not renounce liberalism. Due in part to the evisceration of the Jewish Left after World War II, leaders sought to ensure that Jews continued to espouse and support progressive ideas, which, apparently, many did. They also feared that the postwar expectation that Jewish men must become successful breadwinners would undermine historical commitments to education and spirituality. The role of Jewish women was especially contested; women’s fervent civic engagement in the suburbs raised apprehensions about the future of the Jewish family. Jews coming of age in the 1960s, influenced by leaders’ uneasiness over the process of suburbanization and inspired by social protests and countercultural behaviors, shared their elders’ romantic conceptions of the past...

Critique of ethnic nationalism in the teachings of Said Nursi: A study of nationalism and the question of Islam in Bangladeshi identity

Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, a strong proponent of Muslim unity, was always against what he called negative nationalism in Muslim societies. While he believed that nationalism could play a positive role in arousing compassion of Muslims, he also warned of its potential drawbacks and adverse consequences as a tool for domination and causing harm. Ethnic nationalism is primarily seen in highly homogenous societies throughout the world today. Bangladeshi nationalism, as developed by its proponents, has however, failed to be inclusive, and instead works within a framework which tends towards exclusion. This paper, through a discursive discussion of historical narratives and aspects of identity formation, argues that recent manifestations of the ills of Bangladeshi nationalism, stems from deeper issues related to failure of resolving the place of religious identity, mainly Islamic identity, within the Bangladeshi identity. This has led to aspects of negative nationalism, such as deeply polarized society, and aided in maintaining the divisive dichotomy of the secular and religious within the nation state in Bangladesh.
 IIUC Studies Vol.14(2) December 2017: 71-84

Identity development process and content: Toward an integrated and contextualized science of identity.

This introductory summary provides an overview of the content of the special issue entitled "Identity Development Process and Content: Toward an Integrated and Contextualized Science of Identity." The 16 theoretical and empirical articles that comprise this special issue were selected to highlight innovative methodologies, theoretical integration, and multicultural perspectives on the process and content of identity formation. The articles examine identity in developmental stages ranging from early childhood to young adulthood, and represent samples from 5 different countries. Within the geographic regions represented, authors explore diverse domains of identity development, addressing relevant and timely aspects of identity formation. Together, the contributions of the special issue are poised to move the field of identity research forward, both theoretically and empirically. (PsycINFO Database Record

English as a lingua franca in the Asian context

The global phenomenon of English as a lingua franca (ELF) has gained a great deal of attention among applied linguists in recent years. With English serving an increasingly important role as a lingua franca in the Asian context, this special issue aims to explore ELF in Asia through the lens of identity. It critically explores issues and concerns surrounding ELF and identity formation from an Asian perspective by investigating ELF communication involving Asian speakers of English and examining their voices and experiences which have been under-represented in the ELF literature. Building upon a small but growing body of literature on ELF and identity, this special issue brings together articles that examine different aspects of identity formation in ELF communication in several Asian contexts, addressing an array of issues including how identities are constructed and negotiated in lingua franca settings and how different aspects of identities are shaped by linguistic and socio-cultural norms of various ELF contexts and by complex interactions of power relations, language attitudes and ideologies.

Aspects of Identity Formation of Male and Female Characters and the Educational Meaning Shown in Okjuhoyeon

Aspects of Identity Formation of Male and Female Characters and the Educational Meaning Shown in Okjuhoyeon

National Identity and the “Great Divide” between Two Theories. Where Does the Albanian National Identity Take Part

According to Tom Nairn, the reason why the dispute between modernists and primordialists is not resolved is because it is irresolvable. This is because the two approaches place different emphases on different aspects of identity formation. Nairn described the debate between Anthony Smith and Ernest Gellner, as a courteous difference of emphasis. Hence, the old presuppositions of modernism are losing their hold, but no one is quite sure what new ones will replace them. The great debate in nationalism’ studies, is one between so-called “primordialists” and “modernists”. Put simply, primordialists argue that the nation derives directly from a priori ethnic groups and is based on kinship ties and ancient heritage. For their part, modernists insist that the nation is an entirely novel form of identity and political organization, which owes nothing to ethnic heritage and everything to the modernism, and the scoope of the debate between them, fail to offer a satisfactory account of the formation of national identity. In this context we need to see where the Albanian national identity takes part. This paper seeks to show how it reacted to the waves of social transition? Where it finds itself and what connects it with globalisation?

Longitudinal relations between personality traits and aspects of identity formation during adolescence

The current study focused on three aspects of identity development relevant to the adolescent years: being an authentic person, perceiving control over and consistency in one's environment, and having consistent expectations from close others. In a two-wave study of adolescents (n = 750), we examined how these aspects change over the course of a year, as well as whether these aspects correspond to the Big Five personality traits. Results indicated three important findings. First, all three aspects evidenced the capacity for change over a year, and appeared more malleable than personality traits. Second, youth higher on all aspects reported a more adaptive personality profile. Third, changes on these aspects coincide with those on personality traits over the year. Findings are discussed with respect to future directions for studying the interplay of identity and personality development.

Taking Ethnic Group Construction Seriously: Towards a Better Understanding of Identity Appeals in Political Campaigns

Research on ethnic politics within Political Science has been characterized by a curious imbalance of producing an elaborate set of expectations of what identity appeals do without the equivalent in-depth examination of what they actually are in practice. In an effort to escape the over-determinism of earlier work which saw identities as fixed and primordial, an entire research tradition has developed to emphasize the ‘social’ aspect of identity formation and stress that individual identities are fluid, mutable, context-dependent, and constructed. However, classifications and the formulation of expectations inducing group interests up from personal identity attributes have impoverished our understanding of the full scope and consequences of the politicization of ethnic identity. Intended to aid the comparative work on identity in order to further our understanding of the processes behind identity redefinition and change, constructivism has been left unable to do so by blunt concepts and inadequate methodologies. Attributing causality to individual identity attributes alone, regardless of the extent of advanced combinatorics attached to their interpretation, cannot offer a satisfactory understanding of the consequences of social identity construction. I will argue that the ways, in which ethnic appeals are currently conceived and measured could not allow them to perform the function necessary for the theory to hold. Further, an over-emphasis on the performance of the appeal coupled with a perfunctory understanding of its nature leads to the lack of clear expectations and the adequate formulation of testable propositions regarding the conditions, under which various identity appeals are likely to be articulated. The latter is among the longest-standing and most consequential questions in politics. The paper suggests that ethnic appeals in political campaigns be modelled as narratives combining claims about group authenticity and value with rhetoric of rights and entitlement into arguments about representation and redistribution. This structure is able to account for how political rhetoric both evokes and moulds personal identifications into mobilization for group action. A conceptual vocabulary for characterizing ethnic appeals is suggested, which privileges the internal logic of the narrative over categorical distinctions between groups. Theoretically, the argument contributes to linking social categories, individual identities and political behavior with obvious import for mobilization. Empirically, the paper provides a notion of the distribution of the types of ethnic appeals in political campaigns across countries and allows for testing hypotheses of their determinants.

Social Policy, Cultural Integration and Faith: A Muslim Reflection

This article is a reflection on some of the discussions around faith and public life, within the context of Muslim communities and their interaction with public policy. It looks at the gap between popular debates on Muslims and the actual lived socio-economic reality of most people of Muslim background, and then goes on to look at aspects of identity formation and Muslim identity politics in the UK. It also considers the idea of integration and looks briefly at emerging Islamic discourses that are grappling with some of the challenges presented by modern British society. Finally, the article explores the role of faith in the public sphere and if it can help to build social capital and play a role in ideas such as the Big Society. The article concludes by emphasising the need to move beyond identity politics and communitarianism and asks where the real divides in society are – between religious and ideological groups or within them?

Exploring woman university physics students ‘doing gender’ and ‘doing physics’

This article explores what it can mean to be a woman physics student. A case study approach is used to explore how five women who are studying physics at a Swedish university simultaneously negotiate their doing of physics and their doing of gender. By conceptualising both gender and learning as aspects of identity formation, the analysis of the interviews with the five women offers insights into the nuances and complexities of how women relate to the gendered disciplinary culture of physics. This contrasts how research on gender and physics education has been predominantly concerned with comparisons of female and male students' attitudes and/or achievements. Furthermore, the analysis brings to the fore how it is not just the masculine connotations of physics that shape the experiences of the five women, but also the expectations on female physics students.

How to Queer the Past Without Sex: Queer Theory, Feminisms and the Archaeology of Identity

A queer archaeology is often equated to looking for ancient homosexuality. As a challenge to heteronormative practice, queer theory, instead, provides a framework for engaging with all aspects of identity formation and the processes and behaviors that mediate it. This article examines two primary points: (1) queer theory’s relationship to feminist practice and archaeology and (2) its application to the construction and production of difference among ancient Maya commoners. Through this analysis, I explore how investigations of identity and status can and should be part of a queer analysis. Work at the Northeast Group, part of the site of Chan, Belize illustrates how focus on internal class composition, specifically change through time, “queers” traditional models of ancient Maya class formation.

Review: ¿Qué Onda? Urban Youth Cultures and Border Identity by Cynthia L. Bejarano

?Que Onda? Urban Youth Cultures and Border Identity by Cynthia L. Bejarano. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press, 2005. 248 pp. ISBN Latinos are often times viewed as one ethnicity without looking into the differences and similarities that exist among them. Nationality and culture, for example, are often characteristics of existing diversity. Another characteristic is generation status, which must be taken into consideration to better understand the differences and similarities that a group of people share and to see how this affects their identity construction. Mexicana/o and Chicana/o 1 youth, for example, share many characteristics, but the identity of these two groups varies depending on generation status, culture, language, citizenship, and geography (Anzaldua, In ?Que Onda? Urban Youth Cultures and Border Identity, Cynthia L. Bejarano critically examines the identity construction of Mexicana/o and Chicana/o youth in a metropolitan Southwestern high school over the course of four years to demonstrate that identity is formed through historical events, immigration status, proximity to the Mexican border, language, culture, generation status, gender, and popular culture. The book’s opening chapter provides an examination of geopolitics and history to show that one factor influencing Mexicana/o and Chicana/o identity construction is the past, present, and future discrimination they have encountered in U.S. society. This historical perspective allows the reader to better understand issues such as the location in which one lives, especially when dealing with matters of youth culture and social stratification that form hierarchies within the school setting. Bejarano argues that immigrant youth and native minorities’ experiences in the United States vary depending on their proximity to the Mexican border, regardless of whether they live in a city or suburb, and that assimilation is determined by the degree of contact that youth have with American culture. This chapter is important because it demonstrates how the assimilation process differs depending on the stigmas and stereotypes of Mexicanas/os, Chicanas/os, and/or Cubanas/os. The social capital of a group of people ultimately determines whether the group assimilates easily or resists assimilation for example, the history and politics of countries vary and therefore the lives of people are different from one another. Using Border Theory allows scholars to value each aspect of the lives of Mexicanas/os and Chicanas/os and allows them to be viewed non-hegemonically. Border Theory is interdisciplinary in its examination of language, sociology, geopolitics, history, media portrayal, and other aspects of identity formation. The identity construction of Mexicana/o and Chicana/o youth is affected by everything that surrounds them, from the history of their country of origin to Hip-Hop to legal status. An important characteristic of Border Theory is that it removes itself

Rationality, Reason and the History of Thought

Philosophers over the course of the last century, including Edmund Husserl, Chaim Perelman, and Jacques Derrida, have attempted to unravel the tangled relationship between the rational and the reasonable in order to understand how the history of thought progresses. Critical political theorists, including Michel Foucault and Ernesto Laclau have also investigated this issue from a range of perspectives, especially as it relates to the relationship between ideational limits and their transgression and the universal and the particular. This essay compares these perspectives to locate the rational dimensions of the reasonable, and to relate that “meta-reason” to the irrational and unreasonable aspects of identity formation and the unfolding of world history.

Drama, Theatre, and Identity in the American New Republic (review)

Reviewed by: Drama, Theatre, and Identity in the American New Republic Heather S. Nathans (bio) Drama, Theatre, and Identity in the American New Republic. By Jeffrey H. Richards. (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Pp 404. Cloth, $85.00.) In the introduction to his compelling new work, Drama, Theatre, and Identity in the American New Republic, Jeffrey H. Richards notes that "with the exception of Royall Tyler's The Contrast, relatively little has been said in detail about the particular plays and performances that graced—or disgraced—the stages and pages of American theatre . . . in the early republic" (1). Richards's book proposes to address this long-standing gap in scholarship, and does so in a way that historians of early American history, American literature, and American theatre will find invaluable. As Richards observes, scholars have paid considerable attention to Tyler's 1787 comedy The Contrast in a bid to claim a uniquely "American" identity for theatre in the post-Revolutionary period. For many, the paucity of American plays in the early Republican era underscored the need to discover native geniuses and new voices. Richards's study proposes to leave the search for "American-ness" behind, focusing instead on how the concept of "identity" itself shaped what Americans saw both inside and outside the playhouse. Rather than struggling to distinguish the "American" from the "non-American" aspects of the postwar theatre, Richards undertakes an investigation of popular plays and performances that can help scholars unlock the complex process of identity formation in both a larger transatlantic context, as well as a narrowly local one. Richards states, "What I entertain in these pages is the interpretive problem of how to read plays and performances in terms of a world where identity is volatile and where the oppositions that create identity themselves often shift or mushroom or wither in a relatively short time" (7). The book is divided into three parts, each of which examines a different aspect of identity formation in the playhouse. Richards also incorporates a discussion of the popular literature and travel narratives of the period, adding both depth and breadth to his study. In Part I, "Staging Revolution on the Margins of Celebration," Richards maps a broad cultural history for the "staging" of new identities in [End Page 505] the young nation. Part I is divided into six short chapters. Chapters 3 and 4 work particularly well together: one explores how British authors created "American" texts, while the other investigates how difficult it was for American authors to develop a dramatic form that diverged from British models. In Chapter 3, Richards investigates the popular comic opera, The Poor Soldier, which in the 1790s became fodder for Federalist/Republican debates because of its French character Bagatelle, and later became a mainstay at the short-lived African Grove Theatre in the 1820s. Richards questions how a play about an Irish soldier returning to his native village could be accepted by so many diverse American audiences, all of whom seemed to "recognize" themselves in the work. Chapter 4 examines Judith Sargent Murray's The Traveler Returned, a play which Richards argues is essentially a warmed-over version of Richard Cumberland's The West Indian. If Murray eliminates "bawdiness . . . for the affirmation of ideological themes linked to Revolutionary stoicism and republican virtues," her "American" ventriloquism does not wholly conceal that the puppet and its master are of British origin (101). In Part II, "Coloring Ideas: Race, Religion, and the Exotic," Richards studies the complex process of synthesizing identity in a nation already fractured along lines of racial and ethnic tensions. Part II includes four chapters that explore Muslim, Native American, Irish, and African American identity on the national stage. Each uncovers a genealogy of stereotypes, linking the four characters listed above to their transatlantic ancestors. For example, Richards traces Susanna Haswell Rowson's Muslim characters in Slaves in Algiers back to their French and British sources (most notably Voltaire's tragedy Zaire, adapted for the British stage as Zara). Yet he also demonstrates how Rowson "Americanized" her Muslim villain—making Muley Moloc an example of tyranny that "must be combated through a rigorous assertion of virtue" (165). Similarly, Richards exposes James Nelson...