Identity

Historical concepts of identity
Foucault's 'discourse' methodology
Zygmunt Bauman
Identity today in the digital domain

Theories of identity


ESSENTIALISM- our biological make-up, what makes us who we are. We all have an inner essence that makes us what we are.
POST MODERN THEORISTS DISAGREE

Physiognomy
Phrenology
Cesare Lombroso (1835- 1909)- founder of positivist criminology.
Different parts of the brain formulate the way you are- if you have a large part of the brain the other part will be lacking, giving you an unbalanced personality
Criminal tendencies are inherited.
Legitimises racism?

DOMESTIC
ASPIRING
SELF PERFECTING
MORAL
REFLECTIVE
PERCEPTIVES
ANIMAL

Physiognomy legitimising racism


Suggests English, German are superior. Nazism.

Hieronymous Bosch- Christ carrying the cross. 1515


Chris Ofili- Holy Virgin Mary. 1996
As a black woman, exaggerates African features. Caused an uproar at the thought that the virgin Mary was black.

Historical phases of identity


Pre modern identity- Personal identity is stable, defined by long standing roles- what your father did?
Modern identity- Modern societies begin to offer a wider range of social roles. Possible to start choosing your identity- people start worrying abot self identity
Post-modern identity- Accepts a fragmented self.

Pre-Modern Identity


Institutions determined identity. Patriarchal, marriage, the church, monarchy, government.

'secure identities'

Farm-worker
soldier
factory worker
housewife
gentlemen
wife-husband

19th and early 20th centuries

Charles Baudelaire- The painter of modern life
Thorstein Veblen- Theory of the leisure class
Georg Simmel- The metropolis and mental life

Baudelaire introduces the concept of the flaneur-gentleman stroller- leaves no room for women, only men.
Veblen 'conspicuous consumption of valuable goods is a means of reputability to the gentlemen of leisure.
Simmel- 'trickle down theory' What the fashion system today is based around. Walking around Paris looking good- showing something to aspire to, what differentiates them from the rest of society. The lower classes try to emulate what the higher classes are wearing.
Fashion cycle of new seasons- working class try to copy, higher class don't want to be related to lower classes.

Edvard Munch, Evening on Karl Johan, 1892

Simmel suggests that because how quickly things change people become less concerned about whats going on around them and more concerned with themselves.

Discourse analysis

Class
Nationality
Race/ ethnicity, gender and sexuality- otherness

Class, people move to cities and start working in factories, emergence of working class. You have to be aware of other classes to realise your own. If you are in the upper class, you want to maintain it.

Humphrey Spender/ Mass Observation, Worktown project, 1937

Idea of social inequalities at work.
Image of people at the theatre, suggests working class are uncultured- only five people of the industrial north go to the theatre.

Martin Parr, New Brighton, Merseyside, from the last resort. 1983-86

Documents lives as he sees it. Romanticises life. Looking down on other peoples lives?  Condescending nature.

Martin Parr, Ascot, 2003

Trying to fit into a class you don't belong. People wearing things they think are glamorous. Roles they don't belong to.

Martin Parr, Sedlescomebe, Think of Ebgland, 2000-2003
Martin PArr, Think of Germany

Notions of nationality- alexander McQueen- Highland Rape collection. autumn/ winter 1995/-6

Rape of Scotland by the English. Is this is an odd way to make a statement about national identity.

Vivienne Westwood. Anglomania collection, autumn/ winter 1993- 4
About Englishness- using tartan- taunt at the Scottish. Insulting to use it as a symbol of Englishness.

Las Vegas- New York, Paris, Egypt- all these identities in one place. Why would you need to go anywhere if all these identities have been contained in one place?

Race/Ethnicity

Chris Ofili, No woman no cry 1998

Black teenager- Steven Lawrence killed, got off on a loop hole in the law. Victims face in the tears.

Captain Shit and the legend of the Black Stars, 1994

No black superheroes. What would they be called, how would they be perceived by a largely white audience.

'Shithead'

Is he devaluating his own identity instead of making a statement?

Gillian Wearing, Signs that say what you want the to say and not say what someone else wants you to say 1992- 3

Alexander McQueen, its a jungle out there, autumn/ winter 1997-8
Commenting that there isn't much room for black models in fashion.

Gender/ Sexuality


The fashion industry is not the work of women, but of men.
Secret hatred of women by forcing them into exaggerated, ridiculous, hideous clothes.
Mass assumption that male fashion designers are homosexuals and have a secret hatred for women.

Masquerade and the mask of femininity.
Cindy Sherman, untitled film stills, 1977-80
Scenarios that women get put in in film. Women are in film just to look beautiful and be objectified by men.

Women have to differentiate themselves as female artists and create art that comments on gender.
If your a female artist and your photographing a woman are you objectifying women just like men? Most female artists photograph themselves.

Is it more acceptable because a woman has created it?

Wonderbra- domeaning to women or empowering to women? Societies view of what a beautiful woman is.

The postmodern condition: Liquid modernity and liquid lov.

Identity is constructed through your social experience.
Erving Goffman- saw life as 'theatre'.

Zygmunt Bauman Identity is revealed to us identity is something to be inverted not changed.

Introspection, people scan their phones to check that they still exist, that someone cares.

Postmodern identity: I think therefore I am.

Barbara Kruger, I shop therefore I am, 1987- defining yourself by what buy or own.

Online adultery and cyberspace sex: BBC 2 documentary.