Identity and HistoryIdentity and HistoryLiterary Criticism Identity, Trauma and Globalization Introduction Spring 2010 Kate LiuOutlineOutline|Identity and Historyz Q1 - What is Identity? z Q2 - History what eternity - “Time in a Bottle” Dj vu: Somewhere in Time catastrophe - “The Dream Before” (male) violence: “Leda and the Swan”z Q3 - Historiography - why and how?Official history “My Grandmother”Facts “Two Villages” |About our Course Next WeekQ 1: IdentityQ 1: Identity|What is Identity? |Does it matter to you? If so, how do you define your identity (or identities)? Identity Identity : Who am I? Body, Desire, Work, Experience, Memory/TraumaIdentity = who I am Collective - The World, Nation, Society (its History, Ideology, Racism Culture,and Economy)Personal Cultural, Racial, Gender, National, and OthersCommunal: Family and other social units影 響影 響影 響包 括explanationIdentity Identity : Who am I? 1.To talk about our identity, we try to answer the question, “Who am I?“ 2.Plural and provisional: The answer has to be plural and made from time to time (identity is a process of identification.)Identity Identity : Who am I? (2) |We have different kinds of collective identity: z national identity, social identity, cultural/racial identity, class identity, familial identity, gender identity, sexual identity, etc. zAll these identities are formed beyond our control (at least partly). (This explains why some contemporary theorists say that our identities are fragmentary and split.) Identity Identity : Who am I? (3)|Conscious and unconscious: Out of all of these inter- related kinds of collective identity we form our personal (sense of) identity. But “usually“ we do not loudly pronounce (articulte and/or defend) a certain kind of identity unless it is strongly related to our beliefs or unless it is threatened. |Written on our bodies and into history: However, our personal senses or, more precisely, our constructions of our identities, consciously or not, are written on our bodies and embodied in our daily actions, which, in turn, become historical documents of societys archive. Q 2Q 2: : WWhat is history?hat is history?|What do you think about the following statements: zShes history./ A history-making day./ We should put the past behind us and move forward. zHistory is progressive. / History repeats itself. zHistory is who we are and why we are the way we are.(David McCullough)z“. . . to the elderly all the past is not a diminishing road but, instead, a huge meadow which no winter ever quite touches. divided from them now by the narrow bottleneck of the most recent decade of years“ (“A Rose for Emily”). zHistory is the present. Thats why every generation writes it anew. But what most people think of as history is its end product, myth. (E. L. Doctorow) zHistory is fiction, fiction history.A 2: History A 2: History whatwhat|Kinds zOfficial history history-making; grand narrative (for legitimation); “objective” zpersonal histories (biography, memoir, anecdote, diary, etc.); small narrative; “subjective” zIs our daily life part of history? It is when it is selected into a “historical text.”|History as text, interpretation or myth: “History is the present. Thats why every generation writes it anew. But what most people think of as history is its end product, myth” (E. L. Doctorow). History is fiction, fiction, history. A 2: History A 2: History what what Different kinds of Different kinds of historical constructionhistorical construction|Subjective and personal sense of history with recent memories fading “. . . to the elderly all the past is not a diminishing road but, instead, a huge meadow which no winter ever quite touches. divided from them now by the narrow bottleneck of the most recent decade of years “ (“A Rose for Emily”) A 2: History A 2: History what (3)what (3)|History as “a progress beyond the past”- zThe past = a person rejected Shes history. zThe past = Past event/experience lived beyond. We should put the past behind us and move forward. zHistory repeats itself. progressivezRelated View of Time: linear or circular; history as a route we take in life. But history has multiple plot, divergences and even gaps.|History and Identity: “History is who we are and why we are the way we are.” Example 1: Example 1: “ “Time in a BottleTime in a Bottle” ” |The song|Please do a close analysis of the song, both the lyrics and the music. What does it say and how does it say it? Are there contradictions and tensions in this song? |How is it similar to or different from the quote from “A Rose for Emily”? Jim Croce, Died: September 20, 1973 Does it matter who writes the song?Example 1: Example 1: “ “Time in a BottleTime in a Bottle” ” |The song|What The speaker wants to spend everyday with “you” till eternity, but there is not enough time (mortali