Guide to Thinking about Emotions & Identity

I don't claim to have all the answers for everything on this blog, but I am using this to serve as a as a catalyst for thought... even if some entries are inconclusive. Here's an example of such an entry. I dug up notes from a lecture by Dr. Juluri, an International and Global Media class I took in my senior year of uni. You could write an entire thesis on each section/question, really, which I don't have time to do at the moment, but I will be talking more about the word "Oriental" in the future.

But for now, here are some interesting questions that we can ask ourselves as a guide to understanding our own identities and how we define various identities means...

Emotions and Identity

1) Are we orientalizing our own selves?

a. Discourses of identity:

i. Relationships

ii. Emotions

2) Identity segmented:

a. Who we are, Who we project, Who we want to be

i. Relationships and relationality

b. Labels: given to us and used by us

i. To what extent has identity become a label that ‘cuts throats’.

ii. Clash of Civilizations: people killing each other in the name of identity: how does this play out in global violence?

iii. Does violence or identity come first? Suppression of identity leads to emotional fundamentalism, etc. Power and Knowledge.

iv. Identity is dehumanization in the context of suppression/violence…leads to self-assertion of your humanization.

v. Threat to identity versus threat to existence different

c. Evolving

d. How to describe:

i. Who am I? Race, religion, culture, locality/nationality, occupation, age, gender, name, politics, subculture, education, class, looks, interests, sexuality, family, marital status, traveled to, personal characteristics, desires and goals, flaws, fears, *longings and belongings

1. to what extent are the aforementioned interconnected? Does our religion make us feel fear? Does our desire have to do with our education? Etc.

2. How does a country undergoing globalization define themselves with those categories? Which would not be relevant?

3. we have more discourse about desire than the pre globalized times. To what degree are all these aspects of identity discoursified?

e. individual vs. collective: modernity is associated with the rise of the individual

f. are identity politics formed by the powerful? And how do we play into their labels? And how does this play into the global violence?

g. How does society use identity discourse for violence? Ies:

i. Post 9/11 (is freedom a euphemism for Christian-loving, etc?), VA Tech, placing identity on people: Jews, Japanese-Americans (WW2),

3) Modern/Western concepts of identity (and Reality)

a. Cartesian Individualism

i. I=rational consciousness: I think therefore I am

ii. Self as source of action, not a product of divine will

b. Freudian Psychoanalysis

i. Unconscious all important, “I” is not just consciousness

ii. Id, ego, superego

c. Marx: Historical Materialism

i. “Being” gives rise to consciousness

ii. its not who you think or what you feel, it is who you are in the class system

iii. “I” as false consciousness

d. Neo-Marxian Theories

i. “I”: effect : effect of language/ideology

ii. interpellation: “hey YOU!”

iii. not who you are but the language that affects you from movies etc.

e. Postmodern/Postructuralism Discourse (Foucault)

i. “i” as multiple and constructed

ii. highlights epistemic politics

iii. Subject as a product of knowledge

1. eg: insane, patient, Orient

HOW DO WE THINK ABOUT A LIFE BEYOND DISCOURSE???