Identity in World History: A Postmodern Perspective
Author(s)
Wurgaft, Lewis D.
Abstract
Recently, under the influence of postmodernist and feminist theories, for example, the notion of a stable identity has been criticized. These criticisms can be found as well at historical or cultural levels, like in the case of Benedict Anderson and Ernest Gellner. This last tendency contrasts a static concept of cultural or national identity to a more fluid notion which incorporates the ongoing process of displacement that, they argue, characterize national discourse. As a consequence, the identity structures would be more ambiguous and unstable, and reflect the heterogeneous experience of contemporary culture. Some world historians have cited the boundedness of historians within their own cultural identities as a significant obstacle to the development of an intercultural approach to world history. These postmodern reformulations of identity theory challenge the notion of cultural boundedness by emphasizing the discontinuities endemic to modern life and the inescapably plural character of contemporary identity.
