The Trouble with Identity

No doubt, identity politics is ‘in’. Some people even go to extremes, from posturing as a Jewish survivor (the Wilkomirski case comes to mind); assuming a leading role as a speaker for survivors of the New York Twin Towers without having been anywhere close to Ground Zero on 9/11; becoming a leading member of a local NAACP chapter by identifying as being Black yet without having any Black ancestors; becoming a representative of a famous film star and self-identifying as Native American, without a trace of any Native predecessors; last but not least there is U.S. Congressman George Santos ticking almost all the boxes of available identities associated with some history of discrimination or persecution.

Is the identification with the oppressed and belonging to a victimised group a sign of the times? What social, political and cultural pressures lead or even force individuals to assume imagined identities and problematic role playing? What is the relationship between the search for identity and victimology?

One might inquire even further and ask why in the majority of identity politics cases identification is pointing always in one direction only – that of identity as a goal – but rarely at non-identity and working through one’s personal and/or political problems? And, finally, what is it that one needs to be identical with?

In this planned Society Forum we welcome papers that address any of those conundrums, be it from theoretical angle – from Marcel Mauss to Vincent Descombes so to speak – to concrete cases like the ones referred to above.

For further information please contact Society editor-in-chief Andreas Hess (a.hess@ucd.ie).