The politics and ethics of identity : in search of ourselves
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The politics and ethics of identity : in search of ourselves
Cambridge University Press, 2012
- : hardback
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Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 329-414) and indexes
Description and Table of Contents
Description
We are multiple, fragmented, and changing selves who, nevertheless, believe we have unique and consistent identities. What accounts for this illusion? Why has the problem of identity become so central in post-war scholarship, fiction, and the media? Following Hegel, Richard Ned Lebow contends that the defining psychological feature of modernity is the tension between our reflexive and social selves. To address this problem Westerners have developed four generic strategies of identity construction that are associated with four distinct political orientations. Lebow develops his arguments through comparative analysis of ancient and modern literary, philosophical, religious, and musical texts. He asks how we might come to terms with the fragmented and illusionary nature of our identities and explores some political and ethical implications of doing so.
Table of Contents
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Narratives and identity
- 3. Homer, Virgil, and identity
- 4. Mozart and the Enlightenment
- 5. Germans and Greeks
- 6. Beam me up, Lord
- 7. Science fiction and immortality
- 8. Identity reconsidered.
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