Identity, Narrative and Politics

Abstract

The construction of narrative identity is a public - and hence potentially political - process. Telling and listening to stories about oneself involves narrative techniques. Using modern novels as a reference point, Maureen Whitebrook asks what follows for political identity (be it of a person, group or nation) from taking the narrative element seriously: "Who am I?" in conjunction with "Who are we?", and "Who tells the political story?" Identity, Narrative and Politics argues that political theory has barely begun to develop a notion of narrative identity, and explores the sophisticated ideas which emerge from novels as alternative expressions of political understanding. Using a broad international selection of twentieth century English language works - by writers such as D H Lawrence, Nadine Gordimer and Thomas Pynchon - this book considers each novel as a source of political ideas, in terms of content, structure, form and technique, and specifically in relation to the "politics of identity" question. The book assumes no prior knowledge of the literature discussed, and will be fascinating reading for students of politics, literature, cultural politics and political morality.