IDENTITY AND LITERATURE (original) (raw)
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A transscript of a discussion on literature and identity, held by members of the Literature, Media and Cultural Studies SIG of IATEFL (International Association of Teaching English as a Foreign Language). I was one of numerous members who participated in the discussion.
Anthony Everett (2005) argues that those who embrace the reality of fictional entities run into trouble when it comes to specifying criteria of character identity. More specifically, he argues that realists must reject natural principles governing the identity and distinctness of fictional characters due to the existence of fictions which leave it indeterminate whether certain characters are identical and the existence of fictions which say inconsistent things about the identities of their characters. Everett's critique has deservedly drawn much attention and a number of defensive moves have been made by, or on the behalf of, fictional realists. My goal in this paper is to move this debate on a further step. I have three goals: i) to clarify the importance of Everett's discussion of identity criteria within the context of fictional realism, ii) to reassess Everett's objections to realism in light of the resultant literature, and iii) to develop a novel strategy for responding to Everett's concerns. On the approach to be developed, the problems emerge due to an indeterminacy inherent in our literary concepts.
Identity texts: their meaning for their writers and readers
The effort to delineate and identify communication and ourselves, within a limited or a broader community, lies within the context of sociolinguistics. This is so as through our own linguistic production, the voice of " insignificant people " , we can approach greater issues, such as communication and education. Characteristically, Joshua Fishman, who is called " the father of sociolinguistics " , claims that " there is much more than what science can explain and, I personally, need the contribution of poetic, philosophical, artistic or any other kind of speech, to understand everything that concerns me " (Fishman, 1990:123). Through linguistic productions, or texts of various content, we can approach our membership in social groups, especially within a dynamic educational context. This membership implies multiple dimensions (Maalouf, 1994), or identifications, which connect us with others who share some of these elements, and thus our identity is forme...
Vagaries of (Academic) Identity in Contemporary Fiction
Journal of Education Culture and Society, 2018
Aim. The article attempts to look at question of academic identities through the prism the academic novel. This literary genre emerged in English and American literature in early 1950s and centers on the image of the professor. In Slavic literatures the genre of the academic novel appears roughly in early 1990s, which is directly connected with the change of the political order following the fall of the Berlin Wall and disbanding of the Soviet Union. Contemporary Ukrainian literature with its post-Soviet heritage presents a unique source for the study of academic discourse. Methods. An interdisciplinary approach which combines sociological investigation of academic identity (Henkel 2005) and hermeneutic literary analysis is used for this study. In this respect three novels from the contemporary Ukrainian literature – “University” (2007) and “Kaleidoscope” (2009) by Igor Yosypiv, and “Drosophila over a Volume of Kant” (2010) by Anatoliy Dnistrovyj – are chosen for analysis. Results. ...