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ID:
189578
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Summary/Abstract |
JOHN GRAEBER and MARK SETZLER explore the extent to which men and women differ in their views of American national identity and how these views of “Americanness” influence a person’s sexist beliefs. They find few differences between men and women regarding what it means to truly belong to the nation and that the relationship between national identify and sexism is no stronger for men than it is for women.
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2 |
ID:
087596
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Publication |
2009.
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Summary/Abstract |
When Ralph Ellison said that "the
joke [is] at the center of the American
identity," he also meant that the joker is
at the center of American life. In a rapidly
changing liberal society, with fluctuating
standards and values, the joker is
an "American virtuoso of identity who
thrives on chaos and swift change."1
For the joker, identity is not a ½xed principle,
established once and for all, but
a fluid masquerade, an ironic display
of masks and styles, gestures and titles,
which accrue around a space that comes
to be known as the "self."
A great deal of work on identity politics
has focused on similar constructions
of racial identity through complex
cultural appropriations linked to
masking, minstrelsy, and passing. But
Ellison is more optimistic about these
dynamics: he sees the absurd mix of
styles that emerges from what he calls
"pluralistic turbulence" as the only appropriate
response to the absurdities
of American politics and history.2 Accordingly,
anyone who assumes too
serious a relationship with his own
identity-anyone who refuses to play
the joker-will likely be duped by more
powerful jokers still.
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3 |
ID:
087589
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Publication |
2009.
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Summary/Abstract |
It is often said that being an American
means sharing a commitment to a set
of values and ideals.1Writing about the
relationship of ethnicity and American
identity, the historian Philip Gleason put
it this way:
To be or to become an American, a person
did not have to be any particular national,
linguistic, religious, or ethnic background.
All he had to do was to commit himself to
the political ideology centered on the abstract
ideals of liberty, equality, and republicanism.
Thus the universalist ideological
character of American nationality meant
that it was open to anyone who willed to
become an American.2
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