Postmodern Identity Research Articles

“I Put a Spell on You”: Affiliating (Mis)Identifications and Toxic Masculinity in David Lynch’s Lost Highway

Abstract The Lost Highway soundtrack’s kitchen-sink assemblage of mid-1990s alternative acts such as Nine Inch Nails and Smashing Pumpkins and glam giants like David Bowie and Lou Reed seems like a brazen attempt to open additional revenue streams for David Lynch’s uncommercial twenty-first-century noir nightmare. However, closer attention to how these songs are used in the film, particularly three cover songs, reveals a more intricate strategy. This article explores how scholarship regarding cover songs echoes and extends scholarship on postmodern identity in Lost Highway and on the compilation soundtrack itself. Each cover appears at a crucial moment in the narrative, and each exemplifies what Michael Rings calls a “generic reset,” a transformative recording that shifts genre and style to create a new song complete with the ability to alter the meaning of the song and, in the case of Lost Highway, the film as well. Lost Highway’s covers twist Kassabian’s concept of affiliating identifications, ensnaring the audience in a web of affiliating misidentifications, a sonic déjà vu in which the comfort of recognition collapses into disorientation, not pleasure. Such a move in a film about doppelgängers and alter egos borne out of a white male sexual panic cannot be mere coincidence. By subverting audience identification with the soundtrack, Lost Highway broadens noir conventions musically and opens new lanes to understanding the compilation soundtrack as a vehicle for subverting and resisting control and pleasure, chansons fatales whose identities are as fluid and beyond the audience’s control as the femme fatale is from the male noir protagonist.

Preface. The upsurge of irrationality: pseudoscience, denialism and post-truth

As I write this preface, the world faces unbridled polarisation. Not far from here, the streets of Barcelona are burning due to violent riots, driven by postmodern identity politics and recalcitrant doxastic narcissism. Worldwide, clashes of irreconcilable, often extravagant, conceptions shape current controversies over key social issues and global challenges. Political campaigns spread disinformation as routine, aimed at increasing the isolation and radicalisation of social groups. As a result, authoritarian governments are flourishing among consolidated democracies, such as the United States, Brazil, Poland, Italy, Hungary, the United Kingdom, and Mexico. In other countries, such as France, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Finland, populists parties that propose regressive policies are gaining momentum, promoting the fracture of civic epistemology. This political situation emerges from a lower level phenomenon: echo-chambers of information elicited by filter bubbles and consumer-oriented algorithms. These days, people do not need demagogue politicians or professional charlatans to bring them into contact with, and embolden them to accept, disinformation. Instead, the generalised post-truth situation must be considered a pathology of communication that affects almost all dimensions of our cultural landscape: as hot cognition boosts the rejection of evidence-based discussion over identity-related issues, critical thinking is widely perceived as threatening to internalised partisanship and ingroup bias. Predictably, unfounded beliefs thrive under these conditions. Influential groups successfully promote alternative epistemologies through the denial of scientific facts — e.g. anthropogenic climate change, scientific consensus on the safety of vaccination, or well-documented disinformation on Brexit and the like. Science and universities are exploited in order to defend corporate interests. Fake news, corrupt journalism, and other forms of manipulation of public opinion goes unpunished. Social networks, as the dominant model of interpersonal communication, are a hotbed of epistemic agitation. In general terms, fact acceptance has come to be understood as a tribal process, thus leaving behind modern standards of public reason and critical assessment. This situation is not new: humanity has always been involved in all sorts of biases and dishonest motives. Nevertheless, the current upsurge of irrationality arises from its technical intensification. This special issue is aimed at aiding understanding of this state of affairs, as the philosophical analysis of pseudoscience and post-truth is a subject with great social relevance — a fascinating journey through the dark side of human cognition, not sufficiently taken into account within current philosophical discussions. Despite not having clearly delineated sections, it is structured in three thematic clusters. The first cluster (Vacura, Edis, Cuevas-Badallo and Labrador Montero, Torcello, Vega, and my own contribution) deals with the general elucidation and ramifications of post-truth. The second cluster (Hansson, Stamenkovic, Kreimer, Perez-Gonzalez, and Ruse) analyses specific instances of disinformation and misconceptions, particularly in relation to pseudoscience as a social affair and organised scepticism. Lastly, the third cluster (Cernin, Gascon, Manninen, and Pigliucci) is composed of a heterogeneous set of reflections on the cultural implications of post-truth and pseudoscience, including education and virtue epistemology. I would like to thank the authors who have participated in this special issue. As a guest editor, I’m proud of having worked with you all, and of the magnificent manuscripts included in this monograph. Moreover, I would like to thank the editor-in-chief of this journal, Paulo Velez Leon, for his kind invitation and his courageous support.

Third Person Singular Number (2009): A Veiled Attempt to Portray Postmodern Identity

Third Person Singular Number (2009): A Veiled Attempt to Portray Postmodern Identity

The Posthuman Android and the Transhuman Player in Detroit: Become Human

<p>Celem artykułu jest analiza gry wideo science-fiction z 2018 roku pod tytułem Detroit: Become Human, która pomimo obietnicy nowatorskiej narracji oferuje prostą i skądinąd znaną fabułę dotyczącą świadomych androidów, które stopniowo rozpoczynają walkę o emancypację spod władzy swoich ludzkich twórców i właścicieli. Jednakowoż, oferując skomplikowaną narrację, rozgałęzioną z wieloma zakończeniami zależnymi od decyzji graczy, gra zachęca do dyskusji na temat relacji pomiędzy graczami a systemem gry, opierając się na teoriach posthumanistycznych oraz transhumanistyczych, na koncepcji cyborga zaproponowanej przez Donnę Haraway (1991), jak również na postmodernistycznych teoriach tożsamości. Na poziomie narracyjnym przyglądać się będę tym bohaterom, którzy jako androidy ucieleśniają założenia humanizmu, szczególnie kontrastując w tym z postaciami ludzkimi, które charakteryzują się brakiem samoświadomości. Co więcej, na niediegetycznym poziomie, strategie gry będą przedstawione poprzez swój wpływ na gracza, który w zetknięciu z grą może eksperymentować ze swoją tożsamością, albo wręcz, eksplorować swoje transhumanistyczne oraz postmodernistyczne właściwości.</p>

Ascertaining the Discursive Construction of the Cosmopolitan Identity: An Analysis of Bharati Mukherjee’s Jasmine

This paper anatomizes Bharati Mukherjee’s Jasmine in the perspective of cultural assimilation and determines the extent of establishing cosmopolitan identity through discourse. The researcher uses the theoretical framework propounded by Appiah to examine the contribution and representation of literary globalization in the making of ‘universal citizen’ whose cultural and geographical boundary crossing results into the formation of post-modern fluid identities. Methodologically, this qualitative content analysis uses the joint venture of Appiah’s concept of cosmopolitanism and Fairclough’s notion of naturalization focusing on three scenarios which specify an acceptance of differences, accentuation of differences, and attempt to resolve the differences. The analysis reflects that boundary crossing by the immigrants has formed fluidity and has given exponential boost to the idea of harmony and coexistence. It also reveals that this transformation of identity owes to the discourse of the dominant culture which reshapes fundamental knowledge and values for the individuals of minorities. However, it also signifies that postmodern cosmopolitan fluidity continues to thrive.

A Confessional and Narrative Vision for Philosophy of Education: Justification and Basic Presuppositions of a Postmodern Approach

In this article, we attempt to justify and present the basic presuppositions of a (Christian) confessional and narrative vision for philosophy of education in a postmodern context. We argue that although the nihilistic strand of postmodernity challenges the viability of religious discourse, postmodernity also re-opens the world toward its pre-rational foundations by means of the rediscovery of the primacy of narrative. In a postmodern age, any philosophy of education implies a basic understanding of, at least, the (historical) present and the past, in order to establish its place in the scholarly community of educators and educationists. We discern between two different versions of postmodernity and then proceed to explore what constitutes the postmodern narrative identity. Because the rise of postmodernity is intrinsically linked both to modernity and to the pre-modern Christian vision of the world, we explore the justification of a (Christian) confessional and narrative vision for philosophy of education in this respect by means of three fundamental questions. By elaborating on a postmodern Christian vision and by attempting to answer these questions in a narrative manner, we propose that a confessional and narrative vision for philosophy of education may be justified for the contemporary age. Toward this end, we deepen the postmodern rediscovery of narrative further by exploring the work of narrative. We then present a brief confessional account of the nature and scope of philosophy of education. Finally, we propose some of the central tenets of the Christian faith as presuppositions of our vision for philosophy of education.

Skin in the game: Toward a Christological and death-focused model of disability

What is disability? Three major models are historically foundational to the social understanding of disability in the Western world: understanding disability as deficiency, scientific/medical understandings, and postmodern identity and social politics. The author traces the development of these various models (heavily influenced from the historic work of Henri-Jacques Stiker) alongside the fundamental ethic each illustrates. As will be shown in the modern reporting on a specific instance of disability, the current social understanding is rooted in an amalgamation of these historic models. Likewise, this case study illustrates not only where the current field of disability theology is flawed, but also from where a new model may emerge. Interrogating the embodiment of the person in question—a young boy with a unique skin composition—in conversation with pain, the flesh/body conception of Sharon Betcher, and second-person intersubjective theological anthropology, points to a new level of discourse on disability, death, and Christology.

Desire, Affect, and Becoming: A Deleuzian Reading of A Streetcar Named Desire

The paper attempts a revisionary analysis of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire by focusing on the positive aspect of desire in light of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s postmodern philosophy of affect and becoming. While the critical interpretation of the play has tend ed to revolve around Blanche and Stanley’s conflict in terms of binary oppositions, their similarities―sexual and alcoholic indulgence, for instance―and the complexity of their characters challenge such a sche matic reading. Inconsistent and often similar to each other, the characters of Streetcar are non-hierarchical and anti-essentialist entities―what Deleuze and Guattari call ‘desiring machines’―whose differences are only a matter of degree or intensity. Driven by desire, they affect and are affected by each other while making new connections and reconstituting old ones as they become something else. Rather than dramatizing a clash between different individual beings and the destructive consequences of desire, Streetcar is a play of becoming that attests to the productive and revolutionary potential of desire. Blanche’s relations with the other char acters ultimately lead to the deterritorialization of the French Quarter and destabilize old ties that kept them dependent on or even subject to others. In this respect, the play celebrates body’s infinite potential to affect and be affected and produce real consequence as a play of anti-fascism. The play’s politics of becoming, evinced by Williams’ nuanced portrayal of the characters, challenges us to imagine new possibilities of identity and relationship in postmodernity.

Pondering from Celia de Fréne's Works: Literary Genres and Sexual Gender at Stake

How can we go beyond historically constructed gender differences, as we read literary genres in the contemporary Irish context? In order to start finding responses to these questions, we aim at looking into how selves are constructed and identities represented as we read Celia de Fréine’s works. Indeed, concepts of identity in postmodernity, represented selves and literary genres, particularly related to the recent Irish literary context are fundamental points of convergence in the understanding of feminisms and literature today. Therefore, this article intends to show how fixed concepts of gender identity and literary genres are, in fact, unstable in contemporaneity. The paralleled, theoretical notions (of gender and genres) matter in the Irish context, because, apart from a few exceptions, women have been excluded from the public literary scene and many of the poets that appeared after the 1970’s account for their condition as women in a patriarchal society. Moreover, it matters due to the proximity of both cases’ unstable condition in our times.Keywords: Contemporary Irish poetry; literary genres; gender; contemporaneity.

State power, postmodernist identities and conflict in contemporary Nigerian popular music

Over the past decades, conversation has continually revolved around the different functions—social, cultural, economic and political—of the burgeoning scene of Nigerian popular music. While some scholars have argued that the music scene has seen depreciation in terms of “meaning” and social relevance, others have argued that this scene manifests the complex frames of contemporary postmodern identities. Regardless of what the arguments are about its specific functions, it is evident that music has played a significant role in helping to understand the complex intersections between culture and the Nigerian postcolonial state. This article examines the relationship between Nigerian popular music and the Nigerian state. Specifically, it looks at how popular music engages with the politics of resistance and compliance. It examines how, on the one hand, the music attempts to transcend state-determined social barriers, but, on the other hand, in seeking financial legitimacy, paradoxically functions as a conveyor belt for State determined consciousness. In examining these contradictory paradigms, the article attempts to map the complex meanings and significances of popular music within the matrix of contemporary state power in an African postcolonial setting.

ТРАДИЦИИ И ПАРАДИГМЫ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЯ ИДЕНТИЧНОСТИ

В статье рассматриваются дисциплинарные парадигмы, в контексте которых проблема идентичности исследовалась в гуманитарном дискурсе. Цель статьи состоит в анализе проблематической ситуации деструктивного плюрализма и фрагментации дисциплинарных и концептуальных подходов к исследованию идентичности в современном гуманитарном дискурсе, а также возможных путей его преодоления.Методом критического анализа существующих в литературе интерпретаций плюрализма концепций идентичности и подходов к ее исследованию, автор устанавливает, что проблематический характер этого плюрализма обусловлен реальным кризисом идентичности личности в обществе постмодерна. Современному постмодернистскому кризису идентичности соответствует фрагментация и плюрализм дисциплинарных подходов и внутридисциплинарных парадигм, применяемых в исследовании идентичности. Фрагментированный, дискретный плюрализм современных исследований идентичности нередко соединяется также с релятивизацией идентичности, абсолютизацией ее текучести и изменчивости в духе философских принципов постмодернизма.Реализация междисциплинарности на практике оказывается проблематичной, т.к. открывает, не только новые возможности, но и новые проблемы и ограничения. Гораздо более проблематичной, чем междисциплинарная интеграция, оказывается внутридисциплинарная концептуальная интеграция подходов к исследованию идентичности.Автор приходит к выводу о том, что возможны две основных модели преодоления деструктивного плюрализма и фрагментации исследований идентичности. Первая модель выдержана в контексте принципов постмодернистской философии и постнеклассических стандартов научной рациональности.Вторая модель преодоления деструктивного плюрализма и фрагментации исследований идентичности основана на принципах и стандартах гуманитарной классической научной рациональности. В основе второй модели лежит создание целостной интегральной концепции идентичности на базе продуктивной философской парадигмы и междисциплинарной интеграции существующих подходов.

The Discourse of Tattoo Consumption among Female Youth in Nigeria

Among female youth in Nigeria, especially those living in Abuja, Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT), and its environs, skin design or tattooing has become a trendy social ritual in reinventing the notion of the “self” or perceived personhood, according to some subjective relevance. The body, or the skin in particular, has become a site for cultural (re)production and interpretation of meaning and a symbolic resource for embodied social capital and individual agency. This article interrogates the practice of tattooing among these youth: its motivations, semiotic interpretations, and perception. It illuminates how female tattoos have helped to create a conceptual dialogue between the biological (objective) body and the social (subjective) body. The study is conceptually rooted in African feminist thoughts and postmodern perspectives about the (female) body which view it as a text that can be written, rewritten and interpreted in powerful ways through a cultural lens. The results indicate that female tattoos are symbolic investments that represent fashion, self-expression, individuality, social change and sexual agency. Fundamentally, the aesthetic and artistic female body is deployed to reconstruct postmodern female identity while protesting the mainstream stereotyped representation of women especially in a male-dominated conservative society like Nigeria.

ДУХОВНІСТЬ ЯК ОСНОВА СУЧАСНОЇ УКРАЇНСЬКОЇ ІДЕНТИЧНОСТІ

The transformation of spiritual and educational practices in contemporary culture is analyzed. Spirituality is considered as the basis of modern Ukrainian identity. It is proved that Ukrainian post-colonial discourse is not possible without the interaction of the modern and postmodern identity type. This is a critique of the modern and postmodern way of seeing the problem. Cultural and social consequences of the first stage of the information society, the first stage of globalization are: internal fragmentation of the workforce of information producers and the rest; social exclusion of many individuals and entire segments of society. A new stage in the development of identities should consolidate society. It turns out that the dialogic nature of communication forms identity as knowledge of the nature of its own Self, ready to respond to the challenges of the Other, thus not only my identity is formed, but my place in the world, my spirituality, the limits of my values. The modern type of identity is associated with a nation-state, which tries to maximize its influence, the modern type of identity produces a colonial world, where there is a clear division into metropolis and colony, a special type of colonies are internal colonies. In the case of Ukraine, we can see the complex combination of external and internal colonialism, and the particular danger of internal colonialism lies in the fact that it remains unclear to the end who conqueror, but who is subdued. The postmodern identity type in the Slobozhanschyna culture is connected with the rethinking of modernity, it is not so critical, but unifying. Human beings in a globalized world must rely on the renewal of humanistic ideals, a sense of home and security. A new ethics is proposed based on the principles of freedom, democracy and respect for every individuality that extends a new understanding of spirituality in connection with national culture and national outlook.

Mocking fakeness

AbstractPhonetic resources, like dialects and accents, are used in ethnic humour to build up a recognisable character that pokes fun at the stereotypes associated with a particular identity, sometimes with critical and political undertones. In this article, we examine the manipulation of one such resource, aspiration, used in performing and mocking one such clichéd character, called thefake Sámi.This character has a contested history in Finnish tourism and marketing practices, and is embedded in a long-standing debate about who can use emblems of Sámi identity for economic purposes. Adopting a sociophonetic language regard and folk linguistics approaches (Preston 2010;Niedzielski & Preston 2003) we explore how “fakeness” is constructed phonetically by the actors performing “Fake Sámi” in an indigenous Sámi television comedy show during a period of intense political debate in Finland over the legal definition of the category of indigenous Sámi. By analysing the use of hyperbolic aspiration of a prominent feature of Lappish Finnish dialect, the non-initial syllable /h/-sound, we show how the fakeness is performed by evoking linguistic stereotypes of a Finnish Lappish dialect and a Finnish English accent by a deliberate misuse of aspiration: aspirating when standard phonemes in speech should not be aspirated and not aspirating when phonemes should be aspirated. We argue that this kind of deliberate ambivalence and misuse of phonetic resources is a phonetic resource for reflexive postmodern identity performances.

Nationalism and African Communal Identity in Marguerite Abouet’s and Clement Oubrerie’s Aya de Yopougon

Abstract Nationalism has become a contested construct because scholars doubt its ideological authenticity and global migratory consciousness, which promotes transcultural / transnational identity, and problematizes its raison d’être. Though Abouet and Oubrerie’s graphic novel could be read as a portrayal of the emerging urban center and its postmodern identities, this study rather investigates how Aya de Yopougon galvanizes juvenile nationalistic consciousness through age-long African communal identity. Using the postcolonial theory, the paper argues that the epistemology of nationalism, as a forerunner of nationhood, has been inherently encapsulated in African communal identity as manifested in the lives of middle-class dwellers of Yopougon, a suburb of Abidjan. It further deconstructs the symbolic Eurocentric paradigms of nationalism because nationalistic consciousness is located in the African definition of “family” and “community” revealed in the setting of Yopougon which contrasts with other spaces that bear the emblem of nationhood in the novel. Yopougon is not Anderson’s “imagined community”; its inhabitants reflect African communal identity that is located in gender complementarities and civic interdependence. The paper concludes that communalism could be an African brand of modern nationalism, used to develop the nationalistic and communalistic consciousness of the Ivorian youths who are faced with crude realities of a postcolonial society.

Espaço, Identidade e Memória: O Lugar em Era Uma Vez Eu, Verônica

Este trabalho explora os conceitos de identidade e memória, com o objetivo de entender como o espaço urbano da cidade de Recife-PE, representado no filme pernambucano Era Uma Vez Eu, Verônica (Marcelo Gomes, 2012), se constrói como lócus da identidade e da memória dos indivíduos que vivenciam o lugar contextualizado na realidade da vida urbana contemporânea. Apresenta-se aqui uma análise do discurso fílmico baseada nas reflexões e discussões desenvolvidas por teóricos como Stuart Hall (2005) acerca das identidades pós-modernas; Joël Candau (2011) sobre a dialética entre identidade e memória e o narrar como fonte de preservação do tempo, em acordo com uma visão antropológica; Yi-Fu Tuan (1983) e Edward Relph (2012) e suas noções de lugar, e das experiências que transformam o espaço em lugar interferindo na identidade do sujeito contemporâneo.

Komunikowanie o — Konstruowanie z. Tożsamość

Communication — Construction. IdentityThe paper presents the concept of constructing one’s own Me with reference to globalization. It deliberates postmodern identity, which is not the final Me, but one in the process of endless formation. The paper will attempt to describe the identity as a cloth, not a skin for an individual and claim that, as such, it is not entirely pejorative and has positive aspects for the postmodern Me.

Od panieństwa do małżeństwa: zmiana statusu a transformacja tożsamości

Narzeczeństwo i małżeństwo można traktować nie tylko jako instytucje społeczne, ale jako punkty zwrotne, które poprzez zmianę statusu jednostki rozpoczynają i określają kolejne etapy w biografii, wywierając wpływ na indywidualne doświadczenia jednostek. Celem opracowania jest analiza zakresu redefinicji „ja”: zmian poczucia tożsamości oraz zmian tożsamości społecznej w związku z przechodzeniem od statusu osoby stanu wolnego do bycia małżonkiem. Podstawą jest część autorskiego badania o charakterze jakościowym zrealizowanym w roku 2014 techniką pogłębionego wywiadu indywidualnego. Badaniami objęto 25 zamężnych kobiet i 25 żonatych mężczyzn, których staż małżeński w chwili badania wynosił od 3 do 24 miesięcy. Uzyskane wyniki wskazują, że zakres zmian różni się w zależności od płci, obecności kohabitacji przedzaręczynowej w biografii, niemniej najczęściej transformacje wiążą się z poczuciem własnej wartości, dojrzałości oraz zakresu odpowiedzialności. Niezależnie od rodzaju doświadczanych emocji dla większości respondentów jedynie rozpoczęcie kohabitacji lub ceremonia małżeństwa reorganizuje koncepcję „ja”.

Samotność czy wspólnota? – ambiwalentny wymiar kampu

Searching how a campy aesthetics shapes the condition of postmodern identity is the idea of this work. Referring to classical essay by Susan Sontag Notes on Camp, the author explores few levels of the problem. First one (Between Aestheticization and Axiology) emphasizes on the campy stylistics in the process of the aestheticization of reality, its axiology and dandyish tradition. In the second part (From The Romantic Irony to The Postmodern Aestheticization of Personality) author, drawing inspiration from Rorty’s philosophy, describes the specificity of the camp irony – showing its romantic roots and contemporary shape, also treating campy ironist as postmodern clown. The campy self-fulfilment comprises also carnality – that’s why the third part of this work (The Body-Identity-Performance) is about performative aspect of the campy body in view of as well the queer theory and practice as daily functioning of the body. In the last section (Individuality or Community?) the author concludes that strategies of campy subjectivity define postmodern personality and determine its scope: from the self-fullfiling individuality to solidary community.

Philip Roth’s Postmodern Judaism: Retold Religious Stories of Suffering in American Pastoral

ABSTRACTThis article considers religious references and biblically informed narrative strategies in Philip Roth’s American Pastoral. In the novel, Roth complicates the divide between Judaism and atheism via a retelling of biblical narratives that contemplate human suffering and provide reason to doubt God: the story of man’s fall and the story of Job. In writing about his Adam- and Job-like protagonist, Seymore Levov, Roth critiques both faithlessness and faith and shows value in seeing beyond or between binaristic extremes. He also underscores biblical narrative’s capacity to relate with postmodern ways of thinking about history and religion. Hence American Pastoral represents Roth’s return to Judaism of a sort. Ultimately, for Roth, retelling and struggling with biblical narrative enables the negotiation of Jewish and postmodern identities, resolves suffering, and reveals means by which seemingly irreconcilable ideologies can intermingle, inform one another, and even unearth liminal spaces for commonality in art.