“Identity Culture” and “Cultural Identity” in a Postmodern World

Term Paper , 2007 , 21 Pages , Grade: 2.0

Cultural Studies - Empiric Cultural Studies

End of the 20th century has witnessed sudden emergence of “Identity Culture”. More and more people across the globe are thinking about their identity and origin. Collective identity is gaining more and more importance. Noted Scholar Samuel Huntington writes in his celebrated work „ Kampf der Kulturen“ : „Völker und Nationen versuchen heute, die elementarste Frage zu beantworten, vor der Menschen stehen können: Wer sind wir ?“ Identifying with others, in various different ways, can be extremely important for living in postmodern society.

In today’s postmodern times identities are ever changing, overlapping and they are also situation specific. This paper intends to explore the possibility of describing cultural identity emerging in contemporary postmodern world. I begin with conceptualization of the term “Culture”. The main purpose of this work is to deal with cultural identity in postmodern age and hence I have taken liberty to use the words postmodern, postmodernity and postmodernism synonymously.

The term postmodern consists of a whole plethora of interpretations and it derives its origin from modernism. Hence I start with description of modernism in chapter two. Thereafter comparative analysis of modernism and postmodernism is presented.

Postmodern age is an age of dilemmas. This era has given momentum to identity culture. As mentioned earlier more and more people are worried about their identities and various discourses at various levels are taking place. But simultaneously cultural identity in this era is getting fragmented. Hence discussion in divided two parts namely - identity culture and cultural identity - in postmodern times. I have deliberately restricted my sphere to philosophical and cultural fields.

Index

Executive Summary

1 Conceptualization of Culture
1.1 Definitions of Culture
1.2 Clustered Image of Culture
1.3 Some Nuances of Culture
1.4 Some Pitfalls of Culture

2 Understanding Postmodernism
2.1 What is modernism?
2.2 Ideas of Modernism
2.3 What is Postmodernism?
2.4 Postmodernism and Grand Narratives
2.5 Comparative Study of Modernism and Postmodernism

3 Postmodern World: Identity Culture and Cultural Identity
3.1 Identity Culture in Postmodern World
3.2 Cultural Identity in Postmodern World – Carnival of Cultures
3.3 A Photomontage depicting Postmodern Cultural Identity
3.4 Fazit: Paradox der Postmoderne

References:

• College: Ruhr-University of Bochum (European Culture & Economy)
• Course: MA (ECUE)
• Grade: 2.0
• Author: Jitendra Jain (Author)
• Publication Year: 2007
• Pages: 21
• Catalog Number: V163899
• ISBN (eBook): 9783640791750
• ISBN (Book): 9783640791279
• Language: English
• Tags: Culture”, Identity”, Postmodern, World