The words of selves : identification, solidarity, irony
"The author ponders the question: What does it matter what you say about yourself? She wonders why the requirement to be a something-or-other should be so hard to satisfy in a manner that rings true in the ears of its own subject. She decides that some hesitations and awkwardness in inhabiting many categories of the person - including those celebrated by what is sometimes termed identity politics - need not evidence either psychological weakness or political lack of nerve." "This extended meditation on the language of the self within contemporary social politics also considers the lyrical "I" and linguistic emotionality, the historical status of irony, and the possibilities of a nonidentitarian solidarity that is unapologetically alert to the affect of language."--Jacket
Print Book, English, 2000
Stanford University Press, Stanford, Calif., 2000
219 pages ; 24 cm
9780804736725, 9780804739115, 0804736723, 0804739110
43465992
Introduction
1. 'Who me?' self-description's linguistic affect
2. Linguistic unease
3. Lyric selves
4. 'The wounded fall in the direction of their wound'
5. Echo, irony, and the political
Notes
Index