Reclaiming Identity Realist Theory and the Predicament of Postmodernism [Paperback]

Identity is one of the most hotly debated topics in literary theory and cultural studies. This bold and groundbreaking collection of ten essays argues that identity is not just socially constructed but has real epistemic and political consequences for how people experience the world. Advocating a postpositivist realist approach to identity, the essays examine the ways in which theory, politics, and activism clash with or complement each other, providing an alternative to the widely influential postmodernist understandings of identity. Although theoretical in orientation, this dynamic collection deals with specific social groupsChicanas/os, African Americans, gay men and lesbians, Asian Americans, and othersand concrete social issues directly related to race, ethnicity, sexuality, epistemology, and political resistance.

Satya Mohanty's brilliant exegesis of Toni Morrison'sBelovedserves as a launching pad for the collection. The essays that follow, written by prominent and up-and-coming scholars, address a range of topicsfrom the writings of Cherrie Moraga, Franz Fanon, Joy Kogawa, and Michael Nava to the controversy surrounding racial program housing on college campusesand work toward a truly interdisciplinary approach to identity.

Paula M. L. Moyais Assistant Professor of English at Stanford University.Michael R. Hames-Garciais Assistant Professor of English at SUNY Binghamton.

This collection is wide ranging and provides insights into the complex identity problematic from a fresh and provocative realist perspective, with each essay building upon and extending this theory in new directions. Rosaura Sanchez, author ofTelling Identities: The Californio TestimoniesandChicano Discourse

Challenging, contentious, informative and giving full substance to the experiences of the subaltern, this groundbreaking collection carries us through a rich range of materials jlCf