Cultural identity

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cultural identity is the (feeling of) identity of a group or culture, or of an individual as far as she/he is influenced by her/his belonging to a group or culture. Cultural identity is similar to and has overlaps with, but is not synonymous with, identity politics. Cultural identity remarks upon: place, gender, race, history, nationality and ethnicity.

Some critics of cultural identity argue that the preservation of cultural identity, being based upon difference, is a divisive force in society, and that cosmopolitanism gives individuals a greater sense of shared citizenship.^{[citation needed]}

That is not to say that cultural identity must always be divisive. When considering practical association in international society, states may share an inherent part of their 'make up' that gives common ground, and alternate means of identifying with each other. Examples can be taken from both old and contemporary world order. In the old world order European states shared a high level of cultural homogenity, due to their common history of 'frequently violent relationships, and Greco-Roman cultural origins' Brown also argues that the Western invention of the nation-state has proven to be an appealing and homogenising factor to many cultures. ^[1]

[edit] See also

• Coolitude
• Cosmopolitanism
• Cultural diversity
• Diaspora politics
• Identity politics
• Intercultural competence
• Pan-nationalism
• Self-concept
• Self-determination
• Social identity
• Transculturation

[edit] Further reading

• Anderson, Benedict (1991). Imagined Communities. London: Verso.
• Balibar, Renée & Laporte, Dominique (1974). Le français national: Politique et pratique de la langue nationale sous la Révolution. Paris: Hachette.
• Bourdieu, Pierre (1980). L'identité et la représentation. Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales 35, 63–70.
• de Certeau, Michel; Julia, Dominique; & Revel, Jacques (1975). Une politique de la langue: La Révolution française et les patois. Paris: Gallimard.
• Fishman, Joshua A. (1973). Language and Nationalism: Two Integrative Essays. Rowley, MA: Newbury House.
• Gellner, Ernest (1983). Nations and Nationalism. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
• Gordon, David C. (1978). The French Language and National Identity (1930-1975). The Hague: Mouton.
• http://vlib.iue.it/carrie/texts/carrie_books/paksoy-7/ IDENTITIES: how Governed, Who Pays? (full-text)
• Robyns, Clem (1994). Translation and discursive identity. In Clem Robyns (Ed.), Translation and the Reproduction of Culture. Leuven: Cetra. Also in Poetics Today 15 (3), 405–428.
• Robyns, Clem (1995). Defending the national identity. In Andreas Poltermann (Ed.), Literaturkanon, Medienereignis, Kultureller Text. Berlin: Erich Schmidt Verlag ISBN 3-503-03727-6.
• Woolf, Stuart. Europe and the Nation-State. EUI Working Papers in History 91/11. Florence: European University Institute.

[edit] External links

• Sounds Familiar?Visit this British Library website to listen to different accents and dialects across the UK as a form of cultural identity