Spatial Narrative in the Joy Luck Club

Democracy and Nation Formation: National Identity Change and Dual Identity in Taiwan, 1991-2011 Shiau-Chi Shen As has been the case in many newly democratized countries, the transition to democracy in Taiwan entailed nationalist competition and the aggravation of ethnic conflict. Much research has shown that national identities among the general populace have experienced radical change. The Chinese national identity no longer occupies a dominant position, while the Taiwanese national identity is rapidly rising. The popular view is that democratization provides a political space for this nascent Taiwanese identity to challenge, and eventually replace, orthodox Chinese identity. This view, however, overlooks the very important phenomenon that, especially in the stage following the democratic transition, most people held dual national identity, i.e. both Taiwanese and Chinese national identities. This phenomenon presents a puzzle to the study of national identity in Taiwan, and in general as well. Why, in the fierce confrontation between two national identities in national politics, would most people prefer to see Taiwanese and Chinese national identities as compatible and show their allegiance to both? This dissertation challenges the assumption in previous research that the nature of national identity is exclusive—that it represents an either-or choice or attitude. This assumption has led to the incorrect view that the decline of Chinese national identity and the rise of Taiwanese national identity are two sides of the same coin. Contrary to this conventional view, this study shows that the trajectory of the two identities are actually different processes which have occurred during different historical stages and in different international environments, and that they are the results of different political forces. Taiwanese national identity started to rise in the early 1990’s. Chinese national identity, however, began to decline only after 2000. The past two decades thus witnessed a great proportion of people with dual identity. This study focuses on the factors of state and politics, rather than history and ethnicity, to explain the rise of Taiwanese national identity, and also the phenomenon of dual identity. It is contended that the ethnic base of Taiwanese national identity, with its particular history and language, which has been much emphasized by many political and cultural elites, as well as scholars, constitutes only one route of nation formation. The other more important route is through political participation in the democratic regime. While democratic institutions and practices redefine the de jure territory of the state (the Republic of China), democratic citizenship provides a new base for collective self-understanding. Through participation in democratic political processes, identification with the Taiwan-wide political community is cultivated among the populace. The Taiwanese national identity engendered through this route does not challenge the ethnicity upon which the Chinese national identity is based. It thus is able to co-exist with Chinese national identity. The decline of Chinese national identity is hence not the result of the rise of Taiwanese identity, but of the rise of China. It is argued that the dominance of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in the international community along with its staunch One China Principle has removed the important component of the Republic of China (ROC) from the Chinese national identity in Taiwan. Chinese unification now means the elimination of the ROC and to be ruled by the PRC. People who have identified with the ROC no longer opt for a unified great China and hence forgo their Chinese national identity. Based on the study of the phenomenon of dual identity in Taiwan, this dissertation proposes two important theoretical findings. First, contrary to the popular view among the students of nationalism and nationalist politics, it argues that democratization mitigates rather than exacerbates identity politics. Secondly, dual identity is difficult to sustain if the larger nation pursues a state that denies political autonomy to the small nation.

This article discusses how associations form professional identities and reflects on the establishment of the Journal of Western Archives. It highlights the ways in which the establishment of the journal is a manifestation of the development of a Western regional archival identity and underscores the role that individuals play in the creation of associational identities. One of the most compelling vignettes in world literature, found in Miguel de Cervantes’ classic novel Don Quijote, deals with the difficulties of establishing identity. In the novel, Don Quijote forges a new identity for himself as a valiant knight errant; he is accompanied by his neighbor Sancho Panza, whom he has made his faithful squire, as he goes on various adventures. In the incident referenced, Quijote and Panza have just come upon thirty or forty windmills. Quijote declares that the windmills are giants and that they must be vanquished before they can cause more misery and suffering. The following conversation, illustrative of the difficulty of forming a new identity, occurs. “What giants?” asked Sancho Panza. “The ones you can see over there,” answered his master, “with the huge arms, some of which are very nearly two leagues long.” “Now look, your grace,” said Sancho, “what you see over there aren’t giants, but windmills, and what seem to be arms are just their sails, that go around in the wind and turn the millstone.” “Obviously,” replied Don Quijote, “you don’t know much about adventures. Those are giants—and if you’re frightened, 1 Daines: Tilting at Windmills Published by DigitalCommons@USU, 2010 take yourself away from here and say your prayers, while I go charging into savage and unequal combat with them.” Quijote, in reality a retired country gentleman named Alonzo Quijano, is clearly deeply invested in the new identity that he is creating for himself, while Sancho Panza is struggling to adapt to his new identity as a faithful squire. Panza is far more comfortable with his former identity as Quijano’s neighbor. Over the course of the novel, Panza comes to accept the new identity that Quijano has created for him and recognize the benefits that this new identity has given him. The process of identity formation is particularly interesting to me, as I have been deeply enmeshed, over the last two decades, in the process of transitioning from an identity of a student studying to enter medical school to the identity of a professional archivist. Identity is composed of various meanings that we and others attach to ourselves. These “meanings, or self-conceptions, are based on the social roles and group memberships a person holds (social identities) as well as the personal and character traits they display, and others attribute to them, based on their conduct (personal identities).” In professional settings, identity development “often involves tailoring one’s identity to a prototypic role identity.” This is a difficult task for archivists working in the United States, as our archival identity is currently in flux. Rand Jimerson has argued that the “most striking feature of the American archival profession in recent years is its ongoing search for identity and for public acceptance as a socially significant profession.” The archival profession’s concern with identity development is not unique. Other professions have also struggled to create cohesive professional identities that are seen as socially significant by the general public. Jimerson identifies three broad manifestations of American archivists’ search for professional identity as “developing internal standards for professional recognition; enhancing the public image of archives and archivists; and strengthening the research and theoretical foundations of the profession.” 1. Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quijote: A New Translation, Backgrounds and Contexts, Criticism/ Miguel de Cervantes, trans. Burton Raffel; ed. Diana de Armas Wilson (New York: W. W. Norton, 1999), 43–44. 2. Herminia Ibarra and Jennifer L. Petriglieri, “Identity Work and Play,” Journal of Organizational Change Management 23, no. 1 (2010), 11.

This article provides an empirical account of the way members of the Romanian community in Ireland use media (and essentially the online space) as sources for their collective feelings of diasporic identification and also to negotiate and articulate these identity narratives. Diasporic identities are here understood as ongoing processes of understanding themselves and, at the same time, being defined by others. Identities are thus constructed at the intersection of the continuously flowing boundaries between ‘Us’ and Them’. It is at the boundaries that symbolic space is negotiated and identities are fiercely debated, constructed and re-constructed. Some of the existing studies (Nedelcu, 2000; Hiller and Franz, 2004) confirm that the Internet undeniably meets the basic informational and communication needs of an ethnic community, thus being an intrinsic part in the life of many diasporic communities. The study presented here aims to reach further and explore the complex meaning and the role of virtual space in the process of articulation of diasporic narratives of identity. This ethnographic study focuses on the online discussion forum of the Romanian Community in Ireland. The forum was chosen as the preferred research context mainly because it constitutes a lively debate arena; it is the pulsating heart that keeps the community alive. The study presents an analysis of data collected over a six-year period (2004-2010) in the forum archives.

MOMENTS OF TRUST: SIBLING RESPONSES TO THE DISCLOSURE OF A SISTER’S LESBIAN IDENTITY Ryan W. McKee, B.S. A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2003 Director: Julie Honnold, Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology To better understand the responses of siblings to the disclosure of a sister’s lesbian identity, eight pairs of siblings, each consisting of one lesbian participant and one of her siblings, were interviewed. Both lesbian and sibling participants were asked to discuss family relationships before disclosure (coming out), the actual disclosure, sibling reactions, parental reactions, and family relationships since disclosure. Notable results include “closeness” in sibling relationships and high levels of “trust” as strong predictors of supportive sibling responses. Siblings were also found to take on the role of confidant and counselor for their parents as they negotiated their daughters’ newly-disclosed sexual orientation. Chapter One: Introduction The “coming out” process is a major event in the lives of lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals. Disclosure is an ongoing process, and individuals must make decisions every day about whether or not to come out to certain people, including family members. Families are often thought of as safe havens from the harsh realities of the outside world where members can be open and honest about their lives and find acceptance and approval. However, that is not always the case. This is true especially when it comes to dealing with homosexuality, an issue that is seen in many societies as taboo, anti-family, and even unlawful. While it has been shown that disclosure is related to high self-esteem, many people remain closeted because they are uncertain how family members will react to this new aspect of their identity (Vargo 1998). Statement of the Problem The reactions of family are not only influenced by their relationship with the gay member, but also by social forces and traditions that call on them to react in a way that is consistent with societal norms. The revelation that a member of the family is gay can call family and individual beliefs into question, and have strong effects on the way other members of the family see both the gay member and themselves. Anti-gay bias and discrimination run so deeply in American society that relatives often feel effects of the

In this dissertation, staging an encounter between the philosophy of unique selfhood proposed by the Italian sexual difference feminist, Adriana Cavarero, and currently predominant Anglo-American theories of subjectivity, I claim a model of selfhood in which self-writing makes what is general about socially- and discursively-constituted identity unique and material. I ground a critique of Cavarero’s development of Hannah Arendt’s distinction between the who and the what of the self through analysis of several self-writings or ‘autographies’, a term H. Porter Abbott advances in order to accommodate readers’ responses to the narrative action that is peculiar to the formal variety of autobiography. Through my discussion of Virginia Woolf’s Moments of Being, Fausta Cialente’s Le quattro ragazze Wieselberger, Gabriella Ghermandi’s Regina di fiori e di perle, Audre Lorde’s Zami: A New Spelling of My Name, Joan Didion’s Magical Thinking, Primo Levi’s Se questo e un uomo, Brett Shapiro’s L’intruso, and Timothy Conigrave’s Holding the Man – I claim the significance of reading the who-ness of what-ness, the ways in which selves invest themselves in socially determined categories of identity, uniquely. For Cavarero, ‘postmodernism’ recuperates the metaphysical universalism it criticises by privileging the general ways in which a decentred subject is constituted by her/his membership of shared identity determinants: by what s/he is. Cavarero argues that ‘postmodern’ preference for, and over-determination of, what-ness negates the uniqueness of the self, who s/he is, for who-ness designates what is unrepeatable about the self, what escapes the generality of what-ness. My being Australian, white, gay, middle-class, tertiary-educated, etc. is, for Cavarero, an inventory of things I share with other people, an enumeration of what is general about me. None of these identities is reducible to me, however; none of them, because they can describe many people generally, accounts for my uniqueness. Cavarero’s claim to a philosophy that avoids generality of this kind offers an ontology in which the self is necessarily, dependently, related to others by her/his ‘appearance’ before them, and, importantly, by an altruistic ethic that structures the shared narration of life-stories, the narration of the self by the other. Hers is an invaluable provocation, indebted to the history of il pensiero della differenza sessuale [sexual difference thought] to think the self beyond socially general categories of identity. It is a philosophy that privileges the particularity of the self’s difference, through narration. I argue over the course of my dissertation, however, that Cavarero ignores the unique ways in which selves make particular what she argues is only ever general, irreducible, about them. I claim that Cavarero’s deprioritisation of the what of the self in favour of the who of the self, as well as the autobiographical in favour of the biographical, fails to recognise the significance of ways in which minority identities are invested in their what-ness and its representation and reception; for not having to account for oneself, for one’s what-ness, is a privilege enjoyed only, perhaps, by selves related to what is ideologically of the ‘majority’. Through the questions posed by the texts I discuss, questions of sexual difference and motherhood, ethnicity and belonging, trauma and memory, illness, and sexuality, I formulate a model of selfhood that bridges the who-ness Cavarero so importantly demands philosophical recognition of, and the what-ness she accuses ‘postmodern’ theories of over-determining. I emphasise the common ground between a philosophy rooted in the philosophical practice of il pensiero della differenza sessuale and the fragmented identity of ‘postmodernism’ in order to deepen Cavarero’s provocation to think the uniqueness of the self.

Though identity and narrative are the subjects of many discussions, the two terms are not usually accompanied by any adjective, as if identity necessarily meant “rigid identity”, and narrative were synonymous of “linear, coherent narrative” (in the most reductive acceptation of coherence ). Quite the contrary, it is necessary to rediscover the polysemy of the concept of identity, linking narrative theory to philosophies and theories of the subject. Identity exists only in its modes and in the conflict between coincidence and non-coincidence.

This paper draws on a number of theories concerning state-building, ideology, and identity construction, as well as evidence from contemporaneous French news reports and editorials and secondary sources, in order to better explicate the significance of French colonialism in the modern North African states of Algeria and Tunisia. Specifically, it seeks to explore how French colonial efforts at consolidating their monopoly on violence within the territories and identity construction later reproduced themselves as potent tools against French colonialism in the twentieth century. The extremely violent and protracted nature of “pacification” of the population that marked the beginning of the French colony in Algeria also marked the regime’s end through the bitter, eight-year-long Algerian War of Independence. As a result of the binary construction of identity in the French colonial state, the “native” population in the newly created Algerian state in 1962 steadfastly held to its conviction to expel all French elements regardless of where they were born. The comparatively mild military contestation for Tunisia at the outset of French colonial rule, as well as the more fluid colonial codification of identities, are reflected as much by the gradualist and constitutionalist approach taken by the supporters of Tunisian independence as they are by the population’s more appreciative response to the postcolonial hybrid Tunisian identity.

Since its implementation in 2012, the Philippines’ mother tongue-based multilingual education (MTB-MLE) program has already generated issues that point to the seemingly inadequate preparation of the education bureau when it comes to teacher training and instructional materials production. However, one concern that is seldom mentioned in the literature is the learners’ attitude toward the languages they learn in the process. This is crucial because this attitude could reveal their learning motivations and formation of linguistic and sociocultural identity. Informed by the notion of language attitudes and construction of identity, this study explores the perception of trilingual children on their mother tongue and second languages—Ilocano, Filipino, and English, vis-a-vis their identity construction. Results show that most of the learners hold a positive attitude toward the three languages. However, the identified negative attitudes of some learners as regards these languages may cause pedagogical concerns linking to language teaching and the discourse of culture, nationalism, and globalization. DOI: doi.org/10.24071/llt.2020.230107

The question of identity in a narrative text is one of the most influential questions that need further study. The variations in the factors that may affect the concept of identity add to the complexity of the narrative text. The study aims at analyzing the main phases, stages, themes and events of Moses’ life story as part of the narrative discourse. The effects of time and place on the main events can help in developing the identity of Moses and other characters. The fact that time has influential features that are supposed to be found in a narrative text is crucial to this study. The most important result reveals that the three phases of configuration embrace different stages, themes and events. These stages and themes, in turn, correlate with the main events based on the main character’s intention and the transition of themes. Finally, the main features of time such as importability, stability and symbolization have their implication in developing the identity in the selected text.

This dissertation examines gay/queer individuals’ use of Grindr in Johannesburg, South Africa, as a set of practices geared towards self-representation and identity formation on the platform. The research is concerned with understanding whether these constructed virtual identities conform to, or depart from, the platform’s transnational gay identity, which foregrounds eroticism, self-commodification, (hyper)masculinity and visibility. For the African continent generally, and South Africa in particular, this remains an understudied area of research. Study into this space is particularly important given the growing reach of internet technologies. <i>Grindr</i> was selected as a site of study on virtual gay/queer culture, given its pervasive reach and its capacity to suggest trends within the community – holding significant consequence for online self-presentation. The research applies semiotic analysis to user profiles located within the City of Johannesburg, a major metropolitan city in South Africa. Added onto the analysis is user observations drawn from interviews of past and present users of the platform; this was with a view of gaining additional insight into the profile construction process from a user perspective.

This study examines how three features of self-identity, namely, identity importance, identity firmness, and identity discrepancy, are related to adolescent mental health. In Study 1 (N=203), college students designated as the healthy-control group (N=85) demonstrated higher identity firmness and lower identity discrepancy than those designated as the psychosomatic group (N=56). Three multiple regression analyses indicated that identity discrepancy was a better predictor of psychosomatic reactions than identity importance, yet its predictability did not differ from identity firmness. Findings of Study 1 were replicated in Study 2 (N=185). Another group of college students designated as the healthy-control group (N=65) demonstrated higher identity firmness and lower identity discrepancy than those designated as the neurosis group (N=56). Study 2 also indicated that identity discrepancy was a better predictor than identity firmness for almost all of the subscales included in the SCL-90R. The present study concluded that the newly developed concept of identity discrepancy” offers a unique view for understanding adolescent mental health, provided that the individual is not at a state of both low identity importance and low identity firmness.

This paper discusses the novel ”Gaobie de niandai” (”The Era that we has said goodbye”), written by Li Zishu, the famous female writer of Malaysia Chinese Literature. It analyses two characteristics in this novel: mini-narrative and metafiction. The novel chooses the 513 violent accident in Malaysia in 1969 as the beginning of a new Malaysian Chinese family history and uses mini-narrative to challenge the traditional grand narration of Malaysian Chinese history. This shows the author's unique perspective of understanding the change of Malaysian Chinese after 1969. Meanwhile, this novel uses the rhetoric of metafiction so as to constantly interrupt the nostalgia feeling established through mini-narrative about that period of history. It shows the impossibility of finding one's identity and the truth of history. But such deconstruction also makes the author's standpoint of that era become ambivalent. Finally, this paper also discusses Li Zishu's position in Sinophone literature and believes that she is not a marginalized writer. Therefore, the feeling of being marginalized found in her novel should be examined under the system of Malaysian literature rather than under the system of Sinophone literature.

This study examines the Biafran secession of 1967-1970 and how the secessionist government constructed a Biafran identity in its campaign to gain international support for Biafra’s permanent separation from Nigeria. The introductory chapter outlines the role of identity in Nigeria’s twentieth-century political history and discusses the scholarly literature addressing questions of national and ethnic identity and on the Biafran secession. The thesis then provides a historical framework for discussing the evolution of Nigerian political identities and the failures of Nigerian leaders to build a Nigerian nationalism among the region’s numerous identifiable groups in the colonial and early independence eras. Subsequent chapters analyse the Biafran government’s attempts to elide the inherent instability of identity and overcome the dynamic process of identity formation in Nigeria by constructing and promoting a fixed Biafran identity based on cultural characteristics and historical experiences that allegedly distinguished and united the diverse peoples of the secessionist region.

Recently, the Issue of absent Identity in our contemporary Urbanization has occupied greatimportance particularly in the fields of architecture and urban design, since urbanization outcome ofthe contemporary cities lacks characteristics that provide it with its unique urban identity or placeidentity, that emerges from the natural, built and cultural characteristics of the local community.Urbanization being a reflection for the local community characteristics is the correlation andbelonging function between the community and the city and thus be the place, elsewhere, separationand alienation occur between the community and the city and thus be Placelessness, whichnecessitates the work in this research to reach an integrative design approach in the field of urbandesign that supports giving the urbanization outcome unique place identity, since urban designcarries the first and last responsibility of place making process.The research aims at determining the concept of place identity and its basic elements, in addition tothe concept of urban design, the dimensions of urban design process and its role in construction ofplace identity, to reach an integrated approach in urban design that ensures the emerge of an urbanproduct characterized by belonging to the environment where it is constructed and also respects thecommunity spatial characteristics and its cultural attitudes supporting the future of place identity.This study reached the effectiveness of the urban design in forming the urban identity for the cityand giving it distinguishing , uniqueness and civilized continuity or giving it nonidentity ,disappearance and death , frequently the study managed to formation an overall approach for theurban design process which confirms the duality of the inputs of the concrete ( the built features andnatural features of the environment) abstract ( social cultural features of the environment) to reflexdual outputs concrete ( urban environment belonging to its built natural context) abstract ( urbanenvironment belonging to its social cultural context – meets the needs and hopes its society sooneror later ) it is what supports structure of the place identity and its civilized continuity at light of itsability to keep up the technological scientific development sooner or later.

In globalizing landscapes, Indigenous ways of knowing and being persist in their connectedness to specific geographies, even as they are transformed by migrations, both forced and voluntary, and dynamic exchanges. This paper presents narratives of Indigenous and ally scholars which explore what it means to enact language and culture reclamation from a place of hope—by Indigenous peoples, for Indigenous communities—and in connection with distinct historical, political, and geographic sites. By naming the identities the authors represent—Chickasaw, Nez Perce, Eastern Shoshone/Northern Arapaho, Hopi, San Carlos Apache and Euro-American—we use a framework of hope to counter damaging assumptions of homogeneity of Indigenous communities while also searching for common themes to advance an agenda of decolonization across positionalities. Understanding that Indigenous sovereignties are built on “contingency with the beliefs, and understandings of the past” (Grande 250), we interrupt settler-colonial narratives which portray Indigenous languages and cultures as deficient and vanishing. Further, through narratives, we explore how disciplines such as linguistics, anthropology, education, and cultural studies can be interwoven to highlight experiences of identity reconciliation, spirituality through language revitalization, and storytelling as narrative reclamation. A critical culturally sustaining/revitalizing pedagogy unifies the narratives and provides a framework for attending to “asymmetrical power relations and legacies of colonization” (McCarty and Lee 8). In this way, Indigenous narratives of persistence and optimism find relevance in the global and local here and now while emphasizing the relevancy of hope as a rooted practice of relationality in Indigenous language and cultural education. Sharing narratives of hope acknowledges the experience of colonization, while privileging the hope in Indigenous knowledge as a return to the community and generator of new narratives.