17 ‘TITY DOCUMENTS 6 19s eal) Me. Howh etal, Tdenk 1 Rr in Bhaha Lond strtcte 44 MINIMAL SELV: Stuart Hall | ew adjectival thoughts only ‘Thinking about my own sence of dency, I celzcnhat it has always depended on the fact of being a agrron the sdieec fom theres of you. S0 one of the facinating tinge tout this discussion isto nd myself centered at lt. Now that, in the postmodern age, you all feel to dispersed, I become centied. What De thought of as diapered and fragmented comes, paradoxically, to be fhe representative modeenexperenel Fhisis ‘coming home" witha vengeance ‘Most oft t such enjoy —-weleome to migranthood: Ht also makes me undertand vomething sbout identity which hes been pualing me in the nt thee years, Ive been puaaed by the fet that young. back peoph London today ste marginalize, Haginented, tnenfan chized disadvantaged and dispersed. And yet, they look seit they om the terhtory. Somehow, they too, in eplte of everything, are centered, in place: without much matedal Support struc, but nevertheler, they ccpy anew kind of Spuceat the centee. And 've wondered again ad agai: what itis about tat long dscovery-ediseovery of dent anon bleks ia this migean station, which allows them to lay 2 kind of claim to certain pasts ofthe earth which arent thelts, with quite that certain? Ido fel a tense of —~ date 1 say envy surrounding them, Bavyisa very funny thing forthe Brith to feat at this moment in time — to wane to be black Yet] fee some of you surtepttiously moving towards that ‘marginal identity. I weleome you to tat, 100, 'Now the question iss this centering of marginaiy really septesenative postmodern experlenes? Twat given the title "the minimal self. know the discourse which have theoretically prodvced that concept of ‘minimal vel.Bot my experience now isthat what the dlcoucte ofthe postmodern hat produced ienot something new but ind of cognition of whet identy lays was tsi that sense that} wnt to redefine the general eling Which more and more pce scum to have about thle tht they at al see Wy, ath gate, ean esi thet phe “The classe questions which every migrant face fie twofold: Why ate you hee and ‘When ate You going bet home” No migrant ever kaows the answer tothe ed ston unl ated. Only then does the ot he Know tht fell, in the deep sense, shefhe's never going abe Migration isa one way tp, There iano home’ te go bse fo There never war But "why are you here bata trey intresting question, whieh ve ever been able vo ff proper answer to either I know the eaans nef suppodéd {o ive for education’, forthe chen eke or bef Iiegmore opportuni tenargethe iad ie The th islam bre bees is where my fami 01 ely eae here to getaway from my mother Toe tha che unter story oflfe? One i where one ito ty and get avny ih Somewhere ee Tha as the try which cou ever faybouy about myst So I had to find hes sos, ot Fetions, which were more authentieor st any tty male ceptable place ofthe Big Story ofthe ede vation BE fatrucehal aly fe Who Tam == the wea ine — oe ferme in reition toa whole set of ote: marae, ls trate of the facta deny sa vention fom the vey begioning, long before Tundzratoodany ofthis theres «Hdentcy is formed at the unstable point. where. tle ‘uspertble’ trie ofsbjetity met the nares Mistry, of «estore And since hefhe i posto’ fh ‘aon fo clare acaies which have ben proxy ‘xproprted the cloned raj i teeys Yomewele she! doubly gine, dilated awaye ran whee forse iy or able to spelt fom, ej when dT mite in ceo gh avay fom ny fay. Tdi The poten ne sacovr tate on fui isaboneaeady ts here thee 6 ‘say lnwhich you ean ara leave them. Of couse, soolt torte they seed memery, x even nif, Bat ees ped peereuens beeen Piroot the “bia hat ely matter. I wish they were sill stound, so that didnt have ear them aroun, locked up Somewhere ln my esd, fromathich there is no igo, $0 From the fs, in elation to them, and then to all the other symbolic ‘thee Tcerainly wis rays avate ofthe sel st nly consthuted in that kid of absent presen contestation ‘vith something ele, with some other eal me which rand fete there youve, a5 1've lived in Junaie, ina lower-mide clase family that was tying to be'a middle cast Jamatean ily tying to bean upper mile as amaeen fry tying to be an English Vieworian fimily ». T mean the sion of displaement a place of identi concept you learn to live with, long before you ae able co spe i Living vith, living through diferece 1 senember tye oscaon when returned to Jataic ona vst sometime inthe eal "90s, after the fe wave of migration o England, my mother a {ome ‘Hope they dom think you ate one of those immigeants over there! And of couse, a that point | knee forthe fit ime | was an immigrant, Soddenl a relaton vo that nartative of migstion, one version of thera me! came into view. Lid: "Of courte, man immigrant, What yo you think lame" And she sidin that lassie Jalan mide case ‘way, Wel hope the people over there wll shove al the immigeants off he long end ofs shoe pet” (Theyve been showing eve since) “The ble i that the instant one less to be “an linmigran’ one eeeogines one ca't bean lnmigent oy Jonge int stent place tobe I then, ve though the Jong imporant, poles education of dicovering that Lam ‘black’: Consiatingoneslfas ‘blac’ another recognition of self though difernce: certain clear polarities and tratemiis gsint which one tiesto deine ones, We ‘onstandly andereinae the importance, certain eri politcal things that have happened in the world, ofthis Elly of people to consis themselves pyehily, nthe black identi has long been though ha thay 2 simple proces ecogntion resolution oflresoatons, 4 coming to ren in some place whlch was alway ther Selting for one. Tie reat me ta "The ati “iak’ has never been just thee ether. thas aheaye been an unstable ident, pyc colton pole 1, too,ianartative, a stry,abitory. Something Eonstruted, told, spoken, not simply Tound. People now speak of the sociry'T come fom in totally uncecognaele ways, OFcoureJamslnieablac sci, they n,n eaity Ieits soley of black and browa people vo lived for tee or four hundred yea without ever being able to speak of themtelves at bck. Black i an entity which bad to be learned and eould ony be leened in certain moment. In Jamaica that moments the 197s So the notin ha ientty ina simple if can use the metaphor — back or hike aqucstio, bas never ben the experience of black people at least inthe dlspors, There ate “imaginary communities" — snot 2 bit the lst el becnre they seo symbole Where cle could the dialogue of identity between subjecivity and culture tae place? Derpite ke fergmentitions and duplacrent then the self does eae toa eal setof histories But what sete real histories to whieh 30 many at this conference have ‘owned up"? How new is thi new condition? Te does sem that more sd more people now recognize themelve Inthe nacatves Of dsplacement. But the narativer of daplcement have ferttin conditions of existence, seal hories. Inthe Contemporary world, whieh ace ‘not ony or exclsively payehleal aot simply journeys ofthe mind What i that Special rioment? Is simply the recognition of general Condition of fragmentation atthe end ofthe vothcencay? Temay be ev tht the af alvays, in ene, ton, just as the kinds of ‘oie’ which ate regiced to cente communities of Ideniestion —~ nation, ethnic growp, families, sexualities ete. ~~ ae abieray clotore, andthe forms of pole ston, whether movements, or ates, of clases, tRote to, af tempore, partin arbtar. 1 believe itis an immensely important gun when one reeoyaaes hat all identi contracted acrnsdiferenc an bint live with he pts of diferenes, Bu de the aeseptance of the ction or auative sts of Monit fn eto to the ‘ord ato eequte nex ncessy it oppose the moment of arbitrary closure? st pose for tote wo be ation ot ‘dency inthe word wiebou abiay lose ~~ what one tight all the necessity to meaning of the end of the fentence? Potty, discouree ie endless the fle femiouis of mening, Bat to say anything malin pate, you do have to stop talking, OF gous, every fll op [Poison The nett sentence wll a near al of beck So'whatit this ‘nding? Tes land of eae,» Lind of wage. Iesaye Taced ro say fomething someting. just mows I in not forever, not totally tively ter Its not Sndetpnned by any nfite gone, Bust wow the ‘hat mean hiss who am: Atsceain pont ny certain Siscoursewe cll thee ndnisedslovacs, “the self city ‘polities, ce Full stop, OK, There real a they say) inno flletop ofthat kind. Plies, without he sein interposiion of power in language, the et of Mdcoogy, the Pning, he coring of en te rupee impeerble don't understend political scion without that moment dont see here eames ftom I dort sc how ts poste All the cial movements ich have tied to tensor fociety ‘and. have tequied the. constution of new, fubjectics, have ado accept the nesra sional, ut tis the fetioal neces, ofthe aeitnty clsuce which fot the end, but which takes both police nad denty Powis. Now I petty recogaize tht this fecognition of Aifecence of the imporsbty of Sent’ in ie ely ued Imemning, does, of couse, tener our aenve of what Polies is about. 1 ernsforme the ature of pola! fomimitent. Hundred-and-one potest commitment is 80 Tongerposnibe. But the pocrofintly van white Tooking over the shoulders very dangerous xeeee. You tend (0 fll into 1 hol. Tv it pombe scknowedging the dlrcourse of elérefexivity, 10 conte a ples in the ‘ecogoition ofthe necetatly ftional nature athe modern felgand the necessary tines the lonore sound the inagisary communhies In reliion to which we. ate constantly in the proces of becoming “elvee? Hooking at new conceptions of tent segues ux also to Took at reclefntions of the forms of police which follow from that the police of diferenc, the politics of ‘elteeflenvity, «police hati open ta contingeney bat til Sle tosct. The poles of Infie dapesal ete pole of toaction ral and one can get into tat fom the best fa posible motives (fromthe highest of all posible Tnelectal abstraction). So one has to reckon with the consequences of where that absolut discourse of pened pig one, Now sce tt Fr posible to think, about the nate of new pole faenies, which lan" founded on the oton at some Absolut, nega elf and hich lel cata from seine fly closed naeative ofthe sel pois which aseps the ‘no necesscy or extentalcovtespondencs of saying with anything, and herbs tobe pai rit plies 2 thegemonie projet Talo believe that out there othe ents db mater. ‘eye po he sy igs pcb nome telaonahip, some dstogsey with hem, ‘They ae pol of ‘ertence tothe rolipesm of mich portmodetnstdacoure Tjave to deat with them, somefow And ll of that ont, ea poe, Inthe gener sere « poles of onsituing “enites"indiference. {thin tate ae ‘onception of plies, rooted ina ne conception of the ll, ‘fidentiy, Butt do thin theoreti ig toquices ds to bagia, not only to epee the lnguage of diaper, but alo the language of oi were, congent dlotues of scietaton "Yousef don' thin i's tre tat weve ben criven back to tdciton of ident a the mia sl Ye, ste hat he‘ grand nareatver which consited the fanguage of the telf tan integral encay don hold, Dut actualy you Keno jut eins tating out ther ith Absolutely no ration wr one another, Lat think about the 255 9 SLNSWND0d ALLLNAC 45IDENTITY DOCUMENTS 6 46 question of nation and nationalism, One is aware ofthe degree to which nationals wae contd as one of Ahotermsor poles orteesns of esation ofthese [ik it ie veryimpottan the way in which some people now nd think partclaly of te colonized subject) begin to tach fora no eoncepton of ethicty as ind of counter tothe old sours of rational oc sationa identi. * Now one knows thee are. dangeousy overlapping texans, All the same they ate not Kenta dbl be * constutve clement in the mos vicoualy regressive Kind ‘foatonalism or atonal deni. Bt in ou time, ab imaginary community, iti ao begining to arey tome ‘other mersings, and to deine ae apace for ienty Te Insists ‘on erence — on the fac that every iene i plce,postoned, na culture, langage, tory. Every Statement comes (fom somewhere, fom. somebody ia Pattee, Ties on speach, on conjoncture Butta Pot necesaly armour pated agsiat othe ets It motte to ted, permanent vnaerbl oppesions sot ‘holly defied Uy exclusion, don't want to present this new etic as «powerless, peteet universe, Like all tersns of Mentfeations I has Elmensions of power ini But ont quite so fred by those extemities of power and aggteion,vilence and the olde foots of tana, ‘The slow Contradictory movement from "nationalism to tic ‘source of lentes pat ofa new polis I valso pat of the decine ofthe wert tht mete proces ef ioral fchtivizatin whichis jut begining to make the Beis, at tea el june marginal ‘mario