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Reviews / Comptes Rendus
| Carl James and Adrienne Shadd, eds., Talking About Identity: Encounters in Race, Ethnicity and Language (Between the Lines: Toronto 2001)
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| TALKING ABOUT IDENTITY represents the second edition of this collection of articles on identity and difference originally titled Talking About Difference. Returning to the book after a period of time, I found this revised edition to be insightful and well written. As a second edition of the original 1994 text, it is particularly useful to note that some of the authors have chosen to review and revise their earlier formulations and understandings of self in relation to race, ethnicity, and culture such as Isoki and Khayatt. The collection, as a whole, illustrates the ways in which identity can no longer be thought of as transparent and unproblematic. The discourses represented are varied, with some aligning themselves with more traditional understandings of identity formation as rooted in history and memory, while others might more accurately be identified with a post-structuralist understanding of identity that recognizes fluidity as well as plurality. The collection provides a useful and complex opening to issues of identity and differences through illustration of the varied ways in which the individual author's identities get played out through daily interaction. |
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The book is divided into five parts, each of which deals with a different aspect of identity and difference. In Part I, "Who's Canadian, Anyway?" the articles are grouped to highlight the problematic nature of Canadian identity, the symbolic referents that are used in order to signify "Canadian" and who can unproblem- atically claim such an identity. In Part II, "Growing up Different," the main theme is the way in which growing up in a racialized society affects interaction, and perception of self. Part III, "Roots of Identity, Routes of Knowing," examines the ways in which various authors have struggled to come to "know" themselves and the ways in which identity is as much about becoming as being. Part IV, "Race, Privilege, and Challenges," examines the subtle ways in which "whiteness" provides a position of privilege in a White- dominated society. Finally, Part V, "Confronting Stereotypes and Racism," examines the ways in which stereotypes operate in the everyday. |
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Although the book is divided into five parts, similarities in themes and concepts are evident across these sections as to how individual subjects struggle with their identity formation. For example, in Susan Judith Ship's article, "Jewish, Canadian or Quebecois? Notes on a Diaspora Identity," she deals primarily with the intersection of Jewish, Canadian, and Québécois identity. However, her argument that "defining Jewish identity in singular, monolithic, and homogenising terms as either a religious, cultural, ethnic, or political identity, or even as a matter of socialization, is inadequate for capturing the complexity of lived experiences and consciousness of individuals and collectivities"(21) would seem to apply to other identities under discussion in the collection (e.g.Tsang, Jennings, and James). Similarly Ramos' view that "identity is a two way street ... to choose to be Canadian does not necessarily make you one" links strongly with that of others in the collection, particularly those such as Stan Isoki and Adrienne Shadd who are racialized as "non-White." As Shadd poignantly comments, "at what point do we cease to be outsiders in the country in which we were born?" |
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Themes that are illustrated range from construction of collective consciousness through to the illustration of the processes of Othering and a striving for recognition of what Homi Bhabha identifies as "translation." The collection also illustrates through access to contributors' narratives the ways in which identity is produced discursively through lived experiences. While I would not totally agree with Shipman that all identities are a construction of the mind, nonetheless her comments illustrate that neither are they fixed. As Mbembe (2002) argues: "identity is formed at the interface between the rituals of putting down roots and the rhythms of estrangement, in the constant passage from the spatial to the temporal, from geography to memory."(638) As well as being useful in terms of understanding the dynamic of identity formation, the text, if read closely, can indicate pathways to follow in terms of pedagogy. The importance of the latter is given extra weighting if one notes the significant number of contributors who identify incidents of schooling as being particularly conflictual in terms of identity formation (Hill and Isoki). Perhaps it should remind those of us who are educators that sensitivity is required when dealing with issues of identity and difference — recognition of plurality and intersections rather than unity and fixity. |
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The collection allows for a distinction to be made between an "identity" that defines and a "label" that limits. Many of the contributors indicate through their narratives that while one might be labelled as belonging to a particular group, such alignment is not automatically accepted; resistance (for some) is an integral part of the process of working through identity formation. The importance of this distinction between label and identity is that as Didi Kyatt warns: a label may say little about my self-definition, yet nonetheless determine how you treat me. |
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Any intellectually stimulating text should have the ability to make the reader reflect. This text has several such articles but I would like to highlight three in particular and indicate the nuances and insights into identity formation that can be garnered. Lori Weber's contribution, "I am Canadian but my Father is German," highlights how identities are linked to history and memory and thus carry the legacy of specific memories. Because they are a group racialized as "white," the assumption is that a German identity would represent a privileged point of intersection. However, such commonsense understandings are challenged by Lori Weber's comment that "being German is something one has to apologize for." The latter is a reminder that an understanding of identity formation has to take into account a complex interweaving of class, history, location, gender, etc. that produces heterogeneity rather than homogeneity among racialized subjects. |
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Another article that I would like to draw attention to is Adrienne Shadd's "'Where are you Really From?' Notes of an 'Immigrant' from North Buxton, Ontario." This selection illustrates the longevity of African Canadian presence and the ways in which centredness within a community can instil a strong sense of self. Further, it illustrates how history and memory can work to provide a sense of collective consciousness that can lead to recognition of identity as not just individual but also collective and ultimately political. |
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The final essay, Kia James' "What's your Background," illustrates the tension between "culture as property" and "culture as routes." For her some African Canadian youth have a "mistaken" identity in that they cleave to an African American identity that is produced through electronic media and youth culture. Her notion that these youths are mistaken certainly illustrates that for her there is a true identity that is represented through location. James' article provoked two questions and issues of concern with regard to how we conceptualize identity formation. The first is, what happens in terms of identity formation when the local becomes the global, when resources for identity formation for Canadian youth are expanded through access to US media. Second, James' article provoked me to be mindful that researchers must not only inquire how people position themselves in relation to certain identities but also to interrogate to what use they put such identities in their everyday lives. |
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My judgement of the book is that it will provide a useful addition to more formal course texts on identity, difference, race, and ethnicity. Its narrative structure is very accessible for students (undergraduates and graduates), and can help to illustrate and expand understanding of poststructuralist and post-modern theoretical paradigms. Because the text is an edited collection, the reader/user has a variety of sources through which to construct, reconstruct, and expand on a multiplicity of ways of understanding identities and differences. As with many edited collections, some pieces are stronger than others but there is enough within the collection for these shortcomings to be overcome. |
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Jennifer Kelly
University of Alberta |
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