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Journal of Multicultural Discourses

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Understanding identity discourse: a critical and sociolinguistic perspective

Zhou-min Yuan
a ab

Cent re for Cont emporary Chinese Discourse St udies, Zhej iang Universit y English Depart ment , Nanj ing Universit y of Post s and Telecommunicat ions Version of record first published: 17 Jan 2013.
b

To cite this article: Zhou-min Yuan (2013): Underst anding ident it y discourse: a crit ical and sociolinguist ic perspect ive, Journal of Mult icult ural Discourses, DOI:10.1080/ 17447143.2012.749881 To link to this article: ht t p:/ / dx.doi.org/ 10.1080/ 17447143.2012.749881

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Journal of Multicultural Discourses, 2013 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17447143.2012.749881

REVIEW ARTICLE Understanding identity discourse: a critical and sociolinguistic perspective

Yuan Zhou-mina,b*
a Centre for Contemporary Chinese Discourse Studies, Zhejiang University; bEnglish Department, Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications

(Received 15 June 2012; nal version received 10 November 2012)

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n and Ju , lia Todol Analyzing identities in discourse, edited by Rosana Dolo Amsterdam and Philadelphia, John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2008, Xi+205 pp., $158 (hardback), ISBN 9789027227195 $158 Language and identities, edited by Carmen Liamas and Dominic Watt, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 2010, Xi+306 pp., 80.00 (hardback), ISBN 9780 748635764 1. Overview of the relevant field Apart from the editors preface part, both volumes start with a theoretical issues part dealing with the background knowledge and concept of identity and providing the volume overview, while the rest of the contributions are thematically organized into three parts. The present review article first gives a general introduction of theoretical issues, then presents a summary of the two books from a comparative and contrastive angle, and finally concludes with a brief evaluation. Recently, Identity has moved into the center-stage of the social sciences (Bamberg et al. 2007, 1). The two generally accepted but contrasting views on the concept of identity are essentialist perspective, which regards identity as fixed categories, a complete whole, and a static entity that is presented there before entering into any particular interaction (Ho 2010); and social constructionism (critical approaches and postmodernism as well share a similar view), which takes it as a social construct, or put in Verschuerens words (2008, 26), identity is not a property [] of an individual, but [] it is interactively initiated over and over (though with a degree of consistency), so that the same individual can literally have different identities in different contexts. To capsulate the dynamic and negotiable nature of identity construction, Chen1 (2012, forthcoming) initiated a new term pragmatic identity to refer to the contextualized manifestation of communicators social identity, and a kind of pragmatic resource at their disposal which interlocutors draw on to facilitate their communicative needs. Grad and Lusia (2008, 45) present a developmental debates on the concept of identity and propose an integrative view of identity, considering identity as a unifying
*Email: yuanzhoumin@163.com, yuanzm@njupt.edu.cn
# 2013 Taylor & Francis

Yuan Zhou-min

framework of research about the individuals processes of creation of meaning whilst participating as a social actor in all spheres of social activity. The anthropological and sociolinguistic approach places great emphasis on the socio-indexcial information carried within language variation, but never ignoring the agency nature of language use in identity-making and identity-marking purposes, though plenty of literature has been devoted to shared linguistic behavior and group identities. Apart from the aforementioned approaches, a recently developed analytical framework Cultural Discourse Studies (Shi-xu 2005, 2012b) adopts a discursive historical-comparative approach in which identity is taken as a situated construction of the self, in relation to social others, through symbolic especially discursive practice in a concrete social cultural context (Shi-xu 2005) and in which all Western intellectual traditions should be enriched and counterbalanced by other philosophi n and Todol 2008, 2122). cal traditions that have so far been underestimated (Dolo

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2. The two books: a comparative and contrastive view As part of the series, Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture, Analyzing Identities in Discourse (AID hereafter) focuses on specific contexts where the discursive construction of identity is circumscribed by various forms of power abuse and domination. Part I: Introduction Identities in discourse: An integrative view, ctor Grad and Lusia Mart n Rojo, concentrates on theoretical and written by He methodological issues related with the debates on the concept of identity and presents the critical approach taken in this book which relates process of identity with social conflicts and struggles that are derived from the particular structure of n and the social and discursive orders and the ideologies that support them (Dolo 2008, 22). Part II: Discursive constructions of identity in educational Todol n Rojo who contexts is composed of three articles respectively authored by Mart points out that Madrid teachers seem to isolate the immigrant students by differentiating us (Spanish) from them (immigrants), which aroused resistance from immigrant students, and Liu Yongbing, who suggests national identity in Chinese textbooks should be constructed as open discourses, and Peled-Elhanan who concludes that in school books, the Palestinian citizens are separated as others because they are portrayed as Israels Arab and non-Jewish population. In Part III: National and cultural identity (two articles) Hector Grad shows how the European and national categories and their relationships of compatibility or conflict are built in discourse, and how social actors justify and legitimize these relationships. Lufti M. Hussein draws the conclusion that ethnic, religious, and political identity can be shown and maintained through discourse. Part IV: Identity construction and human suffering (two articles). Following the performative aspect of identity, Susan Ehrlich proposes that identities can also be mediated and structured by alternative, counterhegemonic discourses. Lean, Mei Li, and Stella Meng Hui find people living with HIV/AIDS are depicted as innocent, while the group of people associated with the disease (PAWD) are always described as guilty and are presented as dangerous to society. The volume of Language and Identities (LI hereafter) grows out of a workshop on language and national identity as part of the 11th methods in Dialectology Conference in Finland in 2002. Part I: Theoretical issues consists of three articles: Identity, by John E. Joseph, Locating Identity in Language, by Mary Bucholtz and Kira Hall, and Locating Language in Identity, by Barbara Johnstone. This part

Journal of Multicultural Discourses

shows the reader an essential toolkit for better understanding of the connection between language and identity, which demonstrates that in spite of the ubiquity of the notion of identity in linguistic discourse, its exact nature remains elusive and its manifestations through language uses are as varied as they complex (Llamas and Watt 2010, 3). Part II: Individuals (Chapters 38) is the study of identity at the individual level from forensic and clinical perspectives, basically following a sociolinguistic approach. Part III: Groups and communities (Chapters 916) is mainly concerned with speakers social identity by looking at membership categories. Part IV, the final part, Regions and nations (Chapters 1722) levels at more locally defined identities that cut across many of the global categorizations discussed in the previous section those associated with the region and nation (Llamas and Watt 2010, 2). AID and LI both offer thorough analyses of identities from an interdisciplinary viewpoint, the former from a critical perspective and the latter from a sociolinguistic and anthropological standpoint. The editors introductions to the concept of identity are very informative and offer insightful commentary on the background of identity studies, and the titles of each part present an overall setting with the chapters to follow. Both volumes would make a suitable text for any graduate level course in (critical) discourse analysis or identity studies. Furthermore, the overall introduction of each individual article makes it easier for readers to track the articles of their particular interest. The basic tenet of AID is that identity is dynamic, socially constructed and sanctioned through power relations. By employing a variety of specific theoretical and methodological approaches, such as social cultural analysis, critical discourse analysis, and social psychological analysis, the editors draw together the two themes: identity and power abuse. The editors emphasize the reflection of the multiple conflicts between imposed and conquered identities and problematize an essentialist view on identity, focusing on multiplicity and fluidity, as well as compatibility and incompatibility among different identities. While LI, yet drawing theoretical frameworks from social theory, linguistic anthropology, and (socio)linguistic theory, is more concerned with indexical functions or identity-making and identity-marking functions of language, leading to a more sociolinguistic and anthropological and variational understanding of identity in different levels. In their introduction part of LI, Llamas and Watt state that the aim of the volume (Llamas and Watt 2010, 1) is to investigate the connections and correlations between different levels of our linguistic behaviour and diverse facets of our identities, and the goal in putting together this collection is to offer firmer foundations for how and where to position identity among the external motivations appealed to in explanations of linguistic variation and change. AID inherits key notions of critical linguistic and power studies, with a frequent reference and documentation from Faircloughs Discourse and Social Change (1992), Media Discourse (1995a), Critical Discourse Analysis (1995b), Analyzing Discourse: Textual Analysis for Social Research (2003), and Discourse and Discrimination: Rhetorics of Racism and Anti-Semitism by Reisigl and Wodak (2001). The data employed vary from educational contexts to legal settings, from multicultural classroom dialogues to interviews with young adults, from textbooks to websites, presenting an interesting window through which people look at how the identity is constructed through complicated power relations. LI develops along classic works of sociolinguistics, such as Labovs seminal study of phonological patterns (1963),

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Yuan Zhou-min

Gumperzs (1982) Discourse Strategies, Fishmans Handbook of Language & Ethnic Identity (1999), and Edwards Language and Identity (2009) and Minority Languages and Group Identity: Cases and Categories (2010), to name just a few, but with a wider scope, varying from gender, age, social class, ethnicity to regional and national identity, as well as a large range of data, some from India or Nigeria, though the bulk of materials still comes from England, Scotland, Wales, and the USA. In the Preface, AID addresses the twofold motivation of the present monographic volume, that is, a social, cultural, and anthropological need for research into the discursive construction of identity and a firm belief that the research has to be done with a critical approach which relates the discursive construction of identity to the control of dominant forces and power relations. LI starts from the duality of identity concept, stating that people belong to a potentially infinite number of intersecting social groups, be they local (friends, family, colleagues ) or global (gender, class, ethnicity, nationality ), with the aim to explore the connections and correlations between different levels of linguistic behavior (levels of individuals, groups and communities, and regions and nations) and diverse facets of identities. Due to its respective theoretical vantage point, both volumes lack a cultural discourse approach to the study of identity construction, somehow neglecting culturalhistorical and developmental consideration in the local discursive analysis of identity. For example, the analysis in The construction of patriotic discourse in Chinese basal readers in ALD has revealed that a selective version of national identity is constructed in a manner congruent with the interest of the Chinese government and cultural elite. But a cultural approach would consider first of all these questions: Is the presentation of national identity in textbooks a cultural, traditional practice? Does the local culture incline to show positive pictures to protect children from being mentally shadowed? Does this arrangement have historical reasons and does it change diachronically? With this CAD approach taken, we may have more neutral, factual findings that the presentation of patriotic discourse in Chinese basal textbooks has undergone conspicuous change, with an increasing version of negative social phenomena. And a historical, cultural account would be detailed to explain the current textbook arrangement and the diachronic difference. A similar concern toward the Third World (non-Western countries) is found in Language and postcolonial identities: an African perspective in LI, encouragingly, with a historical cultural analysis (though, it is not stated in the article) to show postcolonial African complexity. However, it lacks a contrastive diachronic and discursive argument. 3. Evaluation The editors of AID claim that, contextualized in the current ideological trend of social constructivism, identity is a discursive dynamic construct and is subject to constant evolution. But how this dynamic process is manifested in discourse (oral communication and written text), particularly, how it is reflected in linguistic resources and conversational structure in different genres of conversation remain understudied. It seems an apparent fact that ideological rules and dominant forces, as well as other cultural, institutional disciplining effect, shape and even manipulate the presentation of ones selfhood. This thinking path, rather, would result in the belief that individuals lose selves before the immense and invisible power abuse and regulatory framework. However, people, as social actors, still have the agency and creativity in protecting and mobilizing their different aspects of selfhood, in

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constructing different kinds of identities (Yuan 2011, 2012). Thus, it would be preferable if more literature representing the performativity and the internationality of identity construction was included in the collection. The agency and performativity aspect of identity studies are also less reflected in LI, though within the field of sociolinguistics, Le Page and Tabouret-Kellers (1985) have explored the conscious employment and manipulation of identities to facilitate the effective language use. The volume has covered many aspects of identities, like gender, age, regional identity; yet, social identities of speakers have been left aside. Articles dealing with the relationship between social identities (e.g. roles played in family and in workplace and how these roles identities get interwoven in family or work occasions) and language use would be warmly welcome and, the glocalized identity could be much expected in the current process of globalization and localization. How do speakers reveal their globalized identity with their localized identity foregrounded or submerged? And how could it be related to their language use, in different conversational occasions? The study of identity, as a constantly heated topic, has been framed within essentialism, and constructivism, approached usually from (critical) discourse analysis or/and sociolinguistic and anthropological perspective, needs to be theoretically renewed and updated. The negotiability and dynamics of identity call for a cultural approach, which claims that discourse is discursively constructed, neither objectively given nor universally organized (Shi-xu 2009, 1). In this sense, identity studies are by and large culturally monological, rather than dialogical and diversified (Shi-xu 2011, 29), as indicated in the above two volumes (for example, the corpora are mainly from the west). Situated in a recently established field of variational pragmatics (Schneider and Baron 2008), historical sociopragmatics (Culpeper 2011) and especially, CAD (a cultural approach to discourse) (Shi-xu 2009, 2011, 2012a), a diachronic, historical, and intercultural approach should be adopted in analyzing identities in different discourses and genres. All in all, even with a blemish in an otherwise perfect collection, the two volumes, developing from different schools and disciplines with varying theoretical foundations, beyond peradventure, successfully demonstrate the multiplex and fluid nature of identity concept, with the AID displaying the shaping influence of power domination shadowed in discourse to identity construction, thus presenting a better picture on how processes of the construction of identity in discourse are linked to the process of domination, and the LI exhibiting the complexity and diversity of the interdependence of language use and its roles in identity-making and marking (Llamas and Watt 2010, 5). Still, I call for a new theoretical perspective, a CAD/CDS approach to the study of identity (notice different conceptualizations of identity between Eastern and Western scholarship and reality) with more concerns on the discourse of non-Western developing countries, facilitating cultural cohesion and common progress and promoting news discourses of cultural solidarity and prosperity (Shi-xu 2009, 2012b). Such studies would both help the Third World build a better self-recognition and the west better understand the Third World. Acknowledgements
The study is sponsored by grants of humanities and arts (10YJC740126) of the Ministry of Education, China, and also nanced by philosophy and social science grant (2010SJB740004) and Qing Lan Project of Education Department of Jiangsu Province.

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6 Note
1.

Yuan Zhou-min

Chen initiated the term pragmatic identity in the project Pragmatic Identity and Linguistic Communication: New Century Excellent Talent Plan by Ministry of Education, developed it in his lectures pragmatic identity: theory and practice, identity principle: theory construction and its application, respectively, delivered at Hunan University in 10 April 2008 and in The 11th China National Pragmatics Conference (CNPrC11) held in Wu Han University on 22 July, 2009, further formulated it in his edited volume (2012) and monograph (forthcoming). Yuan borrowed the term to analyze show hosts pragmatic identity construction in radio-mediated business communication in his doctoral dissertation (2011) under Chens supervision and explore Chinese self-address forms in the article (2012).

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