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Katherine Grant
Critical Review of Stuart Hall (1992) “The Question of Cultural Identity”
The concept of identity is a problematic one and one that is continuously debated bsociologists. One of the key debates surrounds the apparent ‘crisis of identity’. Thisdebate centres on the idea that the firmly established identities of the past arebecoming dislocated from central structures and processes in modern society. Stuart
Hall in his articlewww.51lunwen.org “The Question of Cultural Identity” examines cultural identity andhe analyses the issues surrounding the ‘crisis of identity’.Stuart Hall begins his examination by looking at three different concepts of identity,the Enlightenment, the sociological subject and the post-modern subject. Hall suggests
identity during the Enlightenment was perceived as a centred, unified and rational one.Identity according to the sociological subject reflected the growing complexity of themodern world and awareness that individuals were not autonomous and self-sufficientbeings. Identity developed between what was viewed as the ‘personal’ sphere of howwe present ourselves in terms of our cultural identities and the ‘public’ sphere wheremeanings and values are internalised. In a similar way to how Symbolic Interactionistswould argue our identities develop in through the interaction with others. In this senseHall suggests our identity is stabilised, unified and predictable. Hall moves on to
suggest the identities of the past which were viewed as fixed are becoming fragmentedin a post-modern society. They are no longer composed of a single identity but severalidentities that can become contradictory. Structural and institutional changes have ledto the process of identity becoming open ended, variable and problematic.
Hall argues the concept of individualisation began when individuals were freed fromreligious traditions and structures. A number of events led to this process. Thegrowing belief in Protestantism and the Reformation freed the individual from religiousinstitutions. Renaissance humanism thinking had placed man at the centre of theuniverse and the revolution in scientific interest encouraged man to inquire into themysteries of nature. Together these events, Hall argues, helped to develop the idea of
man as a rational being. Hall draws upon the philosophical thinking of Rene Descartesto show how the concept of the individual was being influenced. Later on in historywhen economic structural changes from feudalism to capitalism developed peoplewere freed from a previous rigid hierarchal societal structure. Hall argues society wasbeginning to become more complex and out of this complexity a new socialconcept of
the individual emerged. The individual was seen in terms of how they were placed inthe structures and formations of society. Darwinian theory influenced human thoughtto view human nature in terms of biology and the advances in the social sciencestheories influenced the concept of the ‘individual’. Individuals were seen in relation totheir membership of and participation in society. It was believed the processes and
structures of were sustained by roles individuals play. Other examples Hall uses toshow the process toward identity fragmentation are Marxism and psychoanalyticaltheory. Marxist thinking replaced man as the universal essence with the socialrelations of modes of production, exploitation of labour etc. No longer was man at thecentre of the universe but a series of social sys本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。