Identity in City of Glass

One of the definining characteristics of City of Glass is the way it engages "identity games": it questions our basic assumptions about the singular, static "self" who goes around in the world with a secure, consistent "personality." These "identity games" in the novel often have to do with authorship, language, word-play and temporal and spatial mobility. Please find a short passage (a sentence or two, at most a paragraph) in your reading so far where such "identity games" are exemplified and record the passage as a COMMENT to this post. Don't forget to include the page number. We can then use our collection of passages to examine "identity" in class tomorrow...

History of Origins: Race Studies

1. In both texts, it is apparent that race is central to cultural studies and according to Sardar and Van Loon, "is a socially constructed concept" and Munns and Rajan state "race pervades every aspect of culture" (Munns & Rajan 385). They state how the term "Race" developed primarily after the Renaissance and "after the industrialization of Europe and the process of colonization" (Sardar and Van Loon 122). Both texts state that the discourse on race has to do with politics and power: "post-colonial critics to challenge power relationships between the colonized and the colonizer" (383), many times including the works of the oppressed like Frederick Douglass.

In Introducing Cultural Studies, they introduce terms like multiculuralism, describing different races living in peace as one. The problem that both texts face in analyzing race and racism is that it views other cultures from a western tradition. According to the texts, the most important humanistic strategy is to view the "'other's' voice on co-equal terms" (385). It emphasizes the "civilized" as western culture. Sardar and van loon talk about Diaspora and how minority communities live in exile because of economic and politic reasons, in particular the jews or the native americans in America.

2. Keywords: "Other"
The "Other" in New keywords is "integrally related to that of identity" (249) and is the "non-self and non-us". It is associated with racist and xenophobic reactions. It has been a main issue in postcolonial studies in which "The West" is in composition with an imaginary "the East".

3. In the wikipedia article Race (classification of human beings) it talks about the history of the idea of race, the debate on whether or not it is a scientific or socially constructed ideal, how it is used in politics and census, and how it varies from country to country. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_%28classification_of_human_beings%29

Another article I wanted to look into was the Thomas Carlyle "Occasional Discourse on the Nigger Question" in which the author opposes the idea of aboloshing slavery and is one of the well-known works showing early racism and discrimination.
http://mac110.assumption.edu/aas/Manuscripts/carlyle.html

History of Origins: Gender Studies

· Gender Studies often tends to be associated with the field of Women’s Studies and the Feminist movement. However, while an important aspect of Gender Studies, this field is not the singular focus. According to Munns and Rajan, “Gender Studies looks at [the] processes of categorization and the ways in which societies construct, articulate and police sexuality.” (Munns and Rajan 485) Therefore, the horizon of inclusive facets is broadened to include gay and lesbian studies and the study of women of multiple races.
The many different factions of Feminism and Women’s Studies are commonly in conflict. Some stress female equality while others celebrate the differences. Post-modernist feminists stress that “social construction of gender involves power relations.” (Sardar and Loon 144) The so called “Third World” feminists criticize their western counterparts for focusing attention only on how the western woman is oppressed in a multi-cultural world. They claim that “white feminist theories fail ‘to take into account the complexity of life—that women are of many races and ethnic backgrounds with different histories and cultures.’” (Munns and Rajan 486)
Gay and Lesbian Studies have become increasingly prominent areas of study over the last few decades and focuses attention on the “Queer Theory” and the “constructed formation of gender and sexual orientation…” (Munns and Rajan 487)
New Keywords- Gender
I think the first paragraph sums it up nicely saying “Gender operates as an analytic concept in a wider field of study denoted by related concepts such as women and men, male and female, masculinity and femininity, sex and sexuality. It usually denotes the social, cultural, and historical distinctions between men and women, and is sometimes described as the study of masculinity and femininity.” (Bennett 140)
Wikipedia-Feminism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminism
Feminism is usually associated with the western movement during the 1960’s and 1970’s that spoke out against male power. However there is more to this critical movement in history and multiple opinions on which issues to address. “Throughout much of its history, most of the leaders of feminist social and political movements, as well as many feminist theorists, have been predominantly middle-class white women from western Europe and North America. However, at least since Sojourner Truth's 1851 speech to US Feminists, women of other races have proposed alternative feminisms.”
Other Source- Queer Theory
http://www.sou.edu/English/Hedges/Sodashop/RCenter/Theory/Explaind/queer.htm
Branching from gender identity issues initiated by feminist and early gay and lesbian studies, the “Queer Theory assumes that sexual identities are a function of representations. It assumes that representations preexist and define, as well as complicate and disrupt, sexual identities.”

History of Origins: Gender Studies

In all cultures people are placed into categories based on their gender and are expected to have certain values and social roles according to which category they are put in. Gender studies "looks at these processes of categorization and at the ways in which societies construct, articulate, and police sexuality" (485, Munns and Rajan). The examination of culture studies became a major feature of cultural studies via the women's liberation movements. They believe that women's gender roles are culturally rather than biologically formed. "The body was viewed as a common rack upon which different societies could inflict different norms of behaviour or personality" (140, Sardar and Van Loon). People were viewed as being created by their societies and their gender being created as well. Gender studies is often considered feminist, however, it is concerned with the cultural significance of all formations in gender and sexuality. The gay liberation movement, however, did shift the discourse of sexuality and reopened the issue of gender definition. The "Queer Theory," tries to analyze texts and social practices to expose and replace them with a new sexual and social condition that goes beyond the "hetero/homo duality" (147).
Lastly, discussions over nature vs. nurture are central to most gender studies. Psychology and Anthropology have been significant in generating materials relevant to the nature/nurture debate. It is constantly debated whether , it is nature or nurture that affects gender and identity. According to Munns and Rajan, "Nature and culture, as socially and politically loaded concepts placed in a bi-polar opposition and constantly capable of appropriating to themselves whatever are, the current 'moral panics' over gender, remain important topics of theoretical and empirical investigation" (488). Saying that the debate will only continue and will constantly be used to discuss the current issues in that particular society.

New Key Words: "Nature"
Nature is very complex and had alot of history. In C13, "nature" was referred to as "an inherent or essential quality or character of something" (235). Natural is also considered to be "appropriate" or "fitting." Suggesting that something that is not natural is inappropriate. Also, in C14 in Europe, nature was considered "the inherent force which directs..the world."

Link to Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminist_movement

I thought it was important to know more about the Women's liberation Movement, in order to understand more about how gender studies has changed. "The feminist movement (also known as the Women's Movement or Women's Liberation) is a series of campaigns on issues such as reproductive rights (including abortion), domestic violence, maternity leave, equal pay, sexual harassment, and sexual violence. The goals of the movement vary from country to country, e.g. opposition to female genital cutting in Sudan, or to the glass ceiling in Western countries."

Other Link:

Explains how the term "Queer Theory," came to be. It also talks about what "Queer Theorists" do and how they are different than the people in the Gay Liberation Movement.

http://www.gayhistory.com/rev2/words/queertheory.htm

"Queer theorists are more ambitious than their "Gay Lib" forebears. The Gay Liberation Movement of the 1970s fought to create a place for sexual minorities in Europe and the U. S., but Queer theorists want more than liberation. Their aim is to destabilize cultural ideas of normality and sexuality and terms like hetero- and homosexual which have been used to oppress people who don't conform to the Western ideal of monogamous heterosexual marriage. Many theorists hope that this strategy will undermine the status quo and foster the freedom people need to create their own sexualities."

History of Origins: America

A comparison between the two texts Introducing Cultural Studies and A Cultural Studies Reader on the development of cultural studies in America provides some discrepancies. The first disagreement comes from the time frame of when cultural studies first appeared in the United States. Sardar and Van Loon in Introducing Cultural Studies aver that cultural studies began to appear in the mid 1980s (Sardar and Van Loon 57). Much of their history surrounding this date is given in reference to the university and academic disciplines as they were “moving toward a more active engagement with the politics of social identity and an examination of the representations of cultural forms” (Sardar and Van Loon 57). They further claim that American studies singularly focused on the critique of media and “did not consider the link between cultural studies and political action as important of even desirable” (58).

This tendentious account of cultural studies becomes less representative when compared to the treatment of Munns and Rajan in A Cultural Studies Reader. Initially they agree with Sardar and Van Loon that there is a lack of concreteness and certainty in the origin of cultural studies, however, their historical narrative traces its evolution back to the early 1900s. Their account provides numerous examples of likely beginnings such as books, academic programs and political movements (Munns and Rajan 209). Another major event that was pivotal in cultural studies conception was the ending of World War Two in 1945. Following the war an increase of college attendance provided a more ethnically diverse and socially varied student body. This body of students, as a whole, became a politically involved group comparable to the British New Left (Wikipedia-New Left). Their aim was to create a counter culture that was in defiance of established authority as a hope to inspire social reform. A reform that was very similar in its ideals to the earlier Progressives (Wikipedia - Progressive), wanting social equality and justice. It was in the ideals of the new left that civil rights and the women’s movement flourished proving that American cultural studies held an “active engagement” in politics and was not wholly centered on the media.

Links to Wikipedia

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_left)

This entry posits the similarities in leftist movements between the Britain and the United States.

"The New Left is a term used in different countries to describe left wing movements that occurred in the 1960s and 1970s. They differed from earlier leftist movements that had been more oriented towards labour activism, and instead adopted a broader definition of political activism commonly called social activism. The U.S. "New Left" is associated with college campus mass protest movements and radical leftist movements. The British "New Left" was an intellectually driven movement which attempted to correct the perceived errors of "Old Left" parties in the post-WWII period."

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_era)

Explains the political movement in the United States beginning around 1890 and extending into the 1920s. New Left ideals and social aims were very much similar to those of this era. Also, it was a major political movement that encompassed the entire country, exhibiting that social critique was a part of American history far before the 1980s.

New Key Word - Liberalism
"By the 1840s, "liberalism" had become popular, along with "socialism" and "communism," and came to refer to a more or less coherent vision of man and society characterized by the wish to free all individuals arbitrarily and unnecessary constraint."

History of Origins: Race Studies

According to Sardar and Van Loon, race is, “...central to cultural studies.” (Sardar and Van Loon 122). The articles imply that if there were no diverse cultures there would be no need for cultural studies. The only problem with having diverse cultures are that, “Non-Western cultures are often seen as obstacles to development, and this leads to racism against the seen as ‘outside mondernity’ or anti-modern.” (Sardar and Van Loon 122) The articles explain about how the Western world was racist against all other cultures. The Western world viewed, “different cultures in terms of how ‘different’ they are from English culture, not on their own terms.” (Sardar and Van Loon 123). This led to racism, which in turn helped to create Diaspora. These articles explain how even today there are many countries in exile from their homelands due to racism or war, which in return create, “tensions of power, of old (local) and new (often global) identities.” (Sardar and Van Loon 134).

Keywords: Race

Keywords defines race as, “a politically charged and ambivalent word that has evaded precise definition.” (290). Race can be associated with many things. It can be associated with crime (racial profiling), nationality, stereotypes, and riots to name a few. Throughout history many people have been worried about racial mixing, so in order to stop it, people would only let same race adoptions and degenerate nicknames for those who are of a mixed heritage. In the use of the word, race has been mixed up with ethnicity, nationality, citizenship, religion, history, language, culture, and identity.

Wikipedia: Diaspora

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaspora

Diaspora refers to anyone or group of people forced to leave their native homeland. The most famous group is the Jews during WWII when Hitler persecuted them. Diaspora has happened all throughout history and even now; the struggles in Africa going on now, all of the civil wars that happened in South America which forced many to flee to Europe, when Japan had major influences over China and Korea, or even Hurricane Katrina, which displaces the entire city of New Orleans.

Another Source: Diaspora Space

http://www.press.umich.edu/pdf/0472113607-ch5.pdf

History of Origins: Gender Studies

Although feminism is a major development of Gender Studies, there is a fine difference between Women's Studies and Gender Studies. Gender studies "looks at the ways in which societies construct, articulate, and police sexuality" (Munns and Rajan 485). There is more of an emphasis on gender identity and its role in culture as opposed to the biological meaning of gender. And in our culture, women were concerned with shifting the dominance away from men. According to Intro to Cultural Studies, there are five different categories of feminism relating to political powers. "Post-modern feminists are not interested in creating or rediscovering "authentic" female expression, but in showing that social construction of gender involves power relations" (Sardar and Van Loon 144).

The rise of gay and lesbian studies were also prominent in the 19th century, being instituted in education. The Queer Theory is a field of work that "articulates the complex, shifting contemporary alignments of class, race, gender, age, and sexuality in the lives of individuals who frequently face multiple oppression" (Munns and Rajan 467), in which social differences should also be celebrated between social and sexual conditions (Sardar and Van Loon 147).

As time progresses, cultural studies are constantly being integrated in educational systems as well as including difference in gender and how they identify with society.

New Keywords: "Gender"
Because there are still many subcategories of Gender, like gender relations, gender identity, and gender studies, an overall concept is that "it usually denotes the social, cultural, and historical distinctions between men and women..." (p. 140)

Wikipedia: "Gender Studies"
Although this is a rather large yet brief article, it covers a lot of basic and important points about pyschoanalyic theory, theorists, and criticism.
"...Is a field of interdisciplinary study which analyzes the phenomenon of gender. It examines both cultural representations of gender and people's lived experience."

Other- "Gender roles"
This website gives an overview of gender roles in society, about the history, some important people involved in gender roles, etc.
http://www.faqs.org/health/topics/8/Gender-roles.html