For Tuesday: Culler, Chapter 8: "Identity, Identification, and the Subject"

NOTE: This is one of the trickier/thornier chapters in the book, and it will make you think or die trying! Get what you can from it, and we'll discuss it a lot more in class on Tuesday. I guarantee it will help you think about Paper #2, however, so be sure to do these questions!  

Answer TWO of the following: 

Q1: Culler writes that “Literature has not only made identity a theme; it has played a significant role in the construction of the identity of readers” (112). While literature can certainly draw attention to certain groups of people, especially marginalized voices, how can it play a role in creating them? For example, why could we argue that books played as much a role in creating ‘childhood’ as society itself?

Q2: Somewhat related to Q1, art is often censored because of a fear of identification, or as Culler puts it, “corrupt[ing] through mechanisms of identification” (113). Why are books—especially in Oklahoma!—much more censored than films or even music in this regard? Why would a book do a better job of modeling identity—and enabling corruption—than other forms of media? Can you think of a specific book that could be accused of this?

Q3: Lacan, a student of Freud, believed identity is a process of mirroring, of copying various performances which we come to believe are 'normal' or 'ideal.' Yet in doing so, "we do not happily become men or women...[and] always encounter resistance" (114). What "resistance" do we encounter in trying to copying our ideal male and female role models, and why is this inevitably a "failure"? Why can't we become perfect copies of our models? 

Q4: How might literature question the idea of “agency,” or how we exercise our free will and identity? While we might deny being racist and avoiding racist sentiments and language, why might we still contribute to a racist (or sexist) discourse by our very positions and roles in society? In other words, where do intentions end and consequences begin?