Cultural Crises of Identity: In and Out of Composition

In the "The Stuart Hall Project", noted Jamaican-English cultural theorist Stuart Hall discusses the progression of the ideas that define culture and identity in the modern world, across the twentieth century. The very classification of Hall as "Jamaican-English" (My designation, not his) is a testament to this complexity. "In a modern society, when I ask people where they are from, I now expect to get five answers," states Hall, who argues that identity in the modern world is built within a framework of "complex hybridity". In reference to the identity crisis of multiculturalism, Hall states that the immigrant must always grapple with the following two questions: “Who am I? Where do I belong?” The most compelling piece of Hall's argument on identity and culture -- and what makes it especially relevant in the context of composition pedagogy -- is the idea that identity is largely defined by a sense of ownership (or lack thereof) and a desire to belong. When this sense of belonging and ownership is disrupted, it creates a crisis of identity, which forms a conception of self in reaction to that issue of ownership. This disruption, the developments and complexities that emerge from it, and its relevance to composition, are what I intend to focus on in this work.

In Baldwin’s Essay, “If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?” Baldwin describes the crisis created when the “communal” identity robs the “private” identity of something that is fundamental to its own understanding of itself – in this case, language. What results from this is a sense of displacement, in which the private identity is told by the overarching group that it is not legitimate (in the Baldwin Essay, that “Black English” is a mere dialect). If we go even further, what we see is a politics of power at play, in the creation and separation of a “communal” and “private” identity, that renders one experience inherently superior, and relegates the other to a second class, displaced status. In the light of its rejection, the private has to define what it is and what it will be. According to the ideas and methodology of Stuart Hall, Baldwin’s essay represents a reaction against the communal identity, in which Baldwin defends and defines the relevance and legitimacy of his private identity (being Black in America), and out of that, creates something entirely new. It is an assertion of everything that makes the private community unique, and different from the larger culture. This moment is what Stuart Hall calls “the deepest crisis of identity”; when the idea is met, on the side of the private, that it will never be fully assimilated or accepted into the communal identity, nor will it be rid of what makes it separate from that larger culture, what you start to see is a culture that is built upon and defined by those differences, and whose voice is an expression of them. When Baldwin makes statements such as the following, we this definition of the Private identity take place: 

“the Beat Generation, which phenomenon was, largely, composed of uptight, middle- class white people, imitating poverty, trying to get down, to get with it, doing their thing, doing their despairing best to be funky, which we, the blacks, never dreamed of doing--we were funky, baby, like funk was going out of style.” 

In stating this, he is claiming the legitimacy of the Black identity in America for himself. He is not attempting to appease the communal; but rather, asserting in its face the strength and power of the private, noting its ability to influence and impact the larger, and how its power to do so is based in what makes it different from that larger group.

The implication of this for composition is that we cannot have a pedagogy that is homogenized and monocultural in its design. In our post-modern society, we should be careful not to teach composition in a way that emphasizes the commonplaces and values of one discourse community over another. If we do so, we risk declaring certain experiences to be more legitimate than others. Instead, we must educate individuals on the commonplaces and expressions of certain discourse communities, paying respect to audience and intention, in such a way that allows them to express their innate, native voice in the process.

Furthermore, we live in a time where identity is more fragmented and complex then it has ever been. As Hall says, identity is constantly evolving, and is an "endless, ever-unfinished conversation." Therefore, our pedagogy of composition should be reflective insofar that it emphasizes attention on the individual, diverse components that make up our post-modern conception of identity. As Hall states, the different "routes" and pathways that form our life experiences dictate our sense of self, and and an understanding of these particularities is crucial to a personal understanding of voice. In so doing, we pay a proper understanding to the role that individual identity plays in composition, and to the diverse, complicated ideas that Hall describes as making up our post-modern sense of self.