The Poetics of Identity

Abstract

I make the case that imaginings influence the construction of identity-the composite of answers to the `who am I?' question. The central model for my arguments is the Quixotic principle-that imaginings stimulated by stories read or stories heard can provide the plot structures for one's own self-narratives. I illustrate the principle with a brief bio-graphical account and with two historical examples. Extending the analysis to contemporary concern with domestic terrorism, I claim that cultural myths provide the imaginings that serve as a framework for adopting the dramatistic role of hero. The individualist frontiersman, a fixture of American mythology, is the protagonist in stories depicting the settling of the West in America. The plot structure of the deeply entrenched myth of the frontier-regeneration through violence-contains the justifications for the actions of domestic terrorists.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 45 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.