The Identity Myth

The Identity Myth PDF Author: David Swift
Publisher: Constable
ISBN: 0349135339
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 341

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Book Description
We are in crisis. As a society we have never been less connected. The internet and globalisation fuel ignorance and anger, while the disconnect between people's reality and perceived identities has never been greater. Karl Marx outlined the idea of a material 'base' and politico-cultural 'superstructure'. According to this formula, a material reality - wealth, income, occupation - determined your politics, leisure habits, tastes, and how you made sense of the world. Today, the importance of material deprivation, in terms of threats to life, health and prosperity, are as acute as ever. But the identities apparently generated by these realities are increasingly detached from material circumstances. At the same time, different identities are needlessly conflated through a process of reeling off a list of -isms and -phobias, and are lumped together, as though these groups all somehow have something in common with one another. Th is process is not just inappropriate but obscures the specific nature of problems being faced. In The Identity Myth, David Swift covers the four different kinds of identity most susceptible to this trend - class, race, sex and age. He considers how the boundaries of identities are policed and how diverse versions of the same identity can be deployed to different ends. Ultimately, it is not that identities are simply more 'complex' than they appear but that there are more important commonalities. In a powerful call to arms, Swift argues that we must unite against these identity myths and embrace our differences to beat inequality.

The Identity Myth

The Identity Myth PDF Author: David Swift
Publisher: Constable
ISBN: 0349135339
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 341

Get Book Here

Book Description
We are in crisis. As a society we have never been less connected. The internet and globalisation fuel ignorance and anger, while the disconnect between people's reality and perceived identities has never been greater. Karl Marx outlined the idea of a material 'base' and politico-cultural 'superstructure'. According to this formula, a material reality - wealth, income, occupation - determined your politics, leisure habits, tastes, and how you made sense of the world. Today, the importance of material deprivation, in terms of threats to life, health and prosperity, are as acute as ever. But the identities apparently generated by these realities are increasingly detached from material circumstances. At the same time, different identities are needlessly conflated through a process of reeling off a list of -isms and -phobias, and are lumped together, as though these groups all somehow have something in common with one another. Th is process is not just inappropriate but obscures the specific nature of problems being faced. In The Identity Myth, David Swift covers the four different kinds of identity most susceptible to this trend - class, race, sex and age. He considers how the boundaries of identities are policed and how diverse versions of the same identity can be deployed to different ends. Ultimately, it is not that identities are simply more 'complex' than they appear but that there are more important commonalities. In a powerful call to arms, Swift argues that we must unite against these identity myths and embrace our differences to beat inequality.

The Myth of Identity in Modern Drama

The Myth of Identity in Modern Drama PDF Author: Jeremy Ekberg
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443883360
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 185

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Book Description
The Myth of Identity in Modern Drama is the first book-length study on existential authenticity and its relation to ontological embodiment treated via analyses of characters of modern drama. Furthermore, it offers new methods of exploring characters and characterization and new ways of thinking about identity. Through its investigations of the plays of Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco and Jean-Paul Sartre, the book shows that the study of embodiment will allow for a new method of analyzing characters and how they form, or attempt to form, ever-changing identities.

Myth and National Identity in Nineteenth-Century Britain

Myth and National Identity in Nineteenth-Century Britain PDF Author: Stephanie Barczewski
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191542733
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
Scholars have become increasingly interested in how modern national consciousness comes into being through fictional narratives. Literature is of particular importance to this process, for it is responsible for tracing the nations evolution through glorious tales of its history. In nineteenth-century Britain, the legends of King Arthur and Robin Hood played an important role in construction of contemporary national identity. These two legends provide excellent windows through which to view British culture, because they provide very different perspectives. King Arthur and Robin Hood have traditionally been diametrically opposed in terms of their ideological orientation. The former is a king, a man at the pinnacle of the social and political hierarchy, whereas the latter is an outlaw, and is therefore completely outside conventional hierarchical structures. The fact that two such different figures could simultaneously function as British national heroes suggests that nineteenth-century British nationalism did not represent a single set of values and ideas, but rather that it was forced to assimilate a variety of competing points of view.

The Shaping of Israeli Identity

The Shaping of Israeli Identity PDF Author: Robert Wistrich
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135206015
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
A dozen essays document the evolution of national myths in Israel as the heroic figures and events of independence and survival transmute into blind fanaticism, great-power manipulation, and traditional colonialism and genocide. Without passing any judgement on the changes, they delve into the meani

The Plot to Change America

The Plot to Change America PDF Author: Mike Gonzalez
Publisher: Encounter Books
ISBN: 1641772522
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 166

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Book Description
The Plot to Change America exposes the myths that help identity politics perpetuate itself. This book reveals what has really happened, explains why it is urgent to change course, and offers a strategy to do so. Though we should not fool ourselves into thinking that it will be easy to eliminate identity politics, we should not overthink it, either. Identity politics relies on the creation of groups and then on giving people incentives to adhere to them. If we eliminate group making and the enticements, we can get rid of identity politics. The first myth that this book exposes is that identity politics is a grassroots movement, when from the beginning it has been, and continues to be, an elite project. For too long, we have lived with the fairy tale that America has organically grown into a nation gripped by victimhood and identitarian division; that it is all the result of legitimate demands by minorities for recognition or restitutions for past wrongs. The second myth is that identity politics is a response to the demographic change this country has undergone since immigration laws were radically changed in 1965. Another myth we are told is that to fight these changes is as depraved as it is futile, since by 2040, America will be a minority-majority country, anyway. This book helps to explain that none of these things are necessarily true.

Off with Her Head!

Off with Her Head! PDF Author: Howard Eilberg-Schwartz
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520088405
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
Explores the theme that women are objectified as sexual and reproductive bodies by symbolic beheading in myths and by such practices as veiling, head coverings, and cosmetic highlighting. Shows how women's heads link them to speech, identity, and mind, all characteristics classically reserved for men, and how beheading women reduces them to mute and anonymous flesh. Most of the examples are drawn from Oriental, classical Greek and Roman, and early Christian contexts, but some modern cases are also examined. The seven essays were presented at a panel of the American Academy of Religion, date and place not noted. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Myth-Taken Identity

Myth-Taken Identity PDF Author: Robert L. Asprin
Publisher: Meisha Merlin Publishing
ISBN: 9781592220298
Category : American fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Their latest outing, Myth-Taken Identity allows Asprin and his co-author, Jody Lynn Nye, to turn their satirical pens on malls, credit cards and identity theft.

Imagining Europe

Imagining Europe PDF Author: Chiara Bottici
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107015618
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 221

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Book Description
Chiara Bottici and BenoƮt Challand explore the formative process of a European identity situated between myth and memory.

Albanian Identities

Albanian Identities PDF Author: Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 9780253341891
Category : Albania
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
The contributors to this study critically de-construct Albanian myths and offer insights into Albanian history and politics. They conclude with contemporary Albanian critiques of the origins and functions of Albanian politics and ideologies.

Identity and Myth in Sports Documentaries

Identity and Myth in Sports Documentaries PDF Author: Zachary Ingle
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 0810887894
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 213

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Book Description
Nonfiction films about sports have been around for decades, yet few scholarly articles have been published on these works. In Identity and Myth in Sports Documentaries, editors Zachary Ingle and David M. Sutera have assembled a collection of essays that show how myth and identity--national, religious, ethnic, and racial--are constructed, perpetuated, or questioned in documentaries produced in the United States, France, Australia, Germany, and Japan. This collection is divided into three sections. "American Identity and Myth" contains essays on consumerism, religion in sports, and post-9/11 America. "Race and Ethnicity" examines the ways in which African American, Mexican American, and Jewish identity are portrayed in the documentaries under discussion. "Global Perspectives" features films and TV series produced outside of the United States or those that provide perspectives on the international sport scene. Spanning several decades, the landmark documentaries discussed in this volume include Hoop Dreams, The Endless Summer, The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg, Olympia, and Tokyo Olympiad and address such subjects as baseball, football, basketball, boxing, soccer, surfing, and the Olympics. The essays pose such questions as "How are notions of the American dream involved in athletes' aspirations?", "How do media texts from Australia or France construct Australian and French identity, respectively?", and "How did filmmakers such as Leni Riefenstahl, Kon Ichikawa, and Bud Greenspan infuse their Olympic documentaries with national ideology despite being intended for an international audience?" By tackling these subjects, Identity and Myth in Sports Documentaries is an intriguing read for scholars, students, and the general public alike.