Difference & Identity (GS & AS) Flashcards
Define interpellation
Identifying individuals by markers of difference (race, sex, ethnicity)
> identifying individuals by the shared difference(s) within “their group of people”
What does the regime of representation do?
- fixes difference
- assigns identity
- sees individual as member of group
Name some key terms relating to difference
- collective identity >us vs them, alterity - binary oppositions (dichotomies) - creation of hierarchy - reduction of complexity
What is multiple marginalization?
Intersection of differences > one falls into multiple marginalized categories (markers) of difference
Explain the connection between difference and power
- implied power hierarchies > power to define
- fixing difference and assigning identities > interpellation (Hey you!)
Explain the difference between type and stereotype
Type: tool of classification
> making sense of the world
> fast communication
Stereotype: classification incl. evaluation
> judgement!
Name the mechanisms of stereotyping
Reduction and simplification Essentialization Generalization = deindividualization Naturalization Fixing of difference
Name the effects of stereotyping
- strategy of splitting
- maintenance of social and symbolic order
- boundary maintenance
- ethnocentrism
Name the elements connecting stereotyping to power structures
- social hierarchies > violent hierarchy
- regime of representation > power to define
- symbolic violence > eg orientalism
What modes of resistance against stereotyping are there?
- reversal (trans-coding) of stereotypes
- substitution of positive images for negative ones
- contesting representational regime > deconstructing stereotypes
Explain the difference between noble and ignoble savage
Ignoble:
- degrading, demonizing image of other
- legitimizes colonization etc
Noble:
- idealized, romanticized image of other
- criticizes civilization
- disavowal of white guilt
Name some approaches of difference
Linguistic
- difference carries meaning
- meaning is relational
- binary opposition
Language
- dialogue sustains meaning
Anthropological
- meaning by assigning positions
Psycho-Analytic
- other as fundamental for self-identity
List some of the critical elements of fictional characters
- not real! exist only when read/played
- etymological meaning: signifying mark
- 18th C.: individual defined through difference
> synecdoche: part represents whole
> humanism, modern individualism
> difference matters, not what we have in common - generalized through language
- completeness = unintelligibility
> typical, not stereotypical
List the main historical conventions of characterization
ancient authors:
- action over character
romantic convention:
- character linked with individuality
classic realism:
- complex, credible, rounded individual, embedded in history, community and institutions
- identification as textual ploy
- empathy as ideological ploy
modernism:
- inconsistent, discontinuous individuals
- excessive psychologizing
- characters at the mercy of unconscious
- myths and traditions of collective unconscious
- indistinct characters
List the aspects of character analysis
characters are the product of:
- symbolic contexts (incl. locations, environment etc)
- textual strategies
- perspectives (narrator, focalizer, narrative situation)
NOTE
individuality and psychological depth need to be analysed as textual features that serve symbolic and ideological functions
Explain the three discursive practices of ‘blackness’ as per Herman Gray
Assimilationist (invisibility) > black Subjects
- subject position: timeless, individual
- norm: hegemonic white, middle class
- ideological strategy: structural problems are translated into individual ones > solvable
Pluralist (separate but equal) > BLACK SUBJECT
- subject position: ahistorical, homogenous, decontextualized
- norm: hegemonic white, middle class (idealized)
- ideological strategy: containment, subversion decontextualization, hegemony (circumstances parallel to white’s, separate but equal)
Multiculturalist (diversity) > Black Subject
- subject position: multiple, complex
- norm: working class, middle class African American
- ideological strategy: direct and explicit representation of diverseness within blackness
NOTE
practices construct, frame, stage, and narrow general issues of race and, more specifically, black subjectivity and presence in contemporary U.S. Society
explain the concept of performative speech acts
“doing things with words”
> repetition of conventionalized phrases uttered from a specific position
Explain Gender performativity
Butler: no actor preceding the role > not a theatrical role! > not voluntary - determined by conventionalized action > effect of regulatory regime - repeats norms, potentially with difference
NOTE
discourse precedes the “I”
Explain the concept of politics of identity
assert power to name oneself BUT: - naming, with names that are other - names are previously owned - initiatory performatives anticipate conventions
Define Orientalism
academic discipline: anyone teaching, writing about or researching the Orient
form of thinking based on ontological and epistemological distinction between Orient and Occident
- binary oppositions
- artificial construct > realistic consequences
- literary phenomenon (stereotypes)
- ahistoric > static
NOTE:
colonial gaze
NOTE:
Occident cleanses itself of negative by projecting it on Orient
NOTE
institutionalised and discursive practice of power
- imaginative constructs viewed as reality
- orientalism’s legitimising claim
> based on positional superiority of the West
