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    10 views3 pages

    Hall Minimal Selves

    Uploaded by

    rijuta862995

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
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    of 3
    ECAH Drcuments 6 Low deny TCH tap $PENTITY DOCUMENTS 6° he heat Me. Restmadinsm and He L. Appignanes: Ced.), Questm of Ldent MINIMAL SELVES Stuart Hall A few adjectival thoughts only Thinking about my own sense of idemtcy, I eealise cat it Ins alwavs depended on the fact of being 4 mipanon the siferecefcom the test of you. So one ofthe fascinating things about dis discussion is co find myself centered a ast, Now ‘hat, ia the postmodern age, you all feel £0 dispersed, T become centered. What I've thought of as dispersed and fragmented comes, paradoxically, to be th representative modern experience! This is ‘coming home’ with a vengeance! Most of e much enjoy —,welcome to migranthood. I also kes me understand something about identity which has sen puzzling me ia the last three year I've been puzzled by the Fact that young black people in London today ate marginalized, Fragmented, unentran chized, lisadvantaged and dispersed, And yet, they look as if ther own the fermtory. Somehow, they too, in spite of everything, are centered, in place: withoue much material Suppor e's rue, but nevertheless, they occupy a new kind of spaceat the centte. Aad I've wondered again and again: what itis about that long discovecy-rediscovery of identity among blacks in chi migrant situation, whieh allows them to lay 4 kind of claim to certain parts of the earth which aren" thei, swith quite that certsiney? Ido feel a sense of — dare say — envy surrounding chem. Envy isa very funny thing forthe British co feel at this moment in time — ro want tobe black! Yer [feel some of you surreptitiously moving towards that marginal idenucy. [welcome vou to that, too. ‘Now the question is: is chis centering of macginalit really she representative postmodern experience? T was given the tine “the minimal self «| know the diseourses which have theoretieally produced that concept of ‘minimal sei? But my experience now is that what the discourse ofthe postmodern has produced isnot something new but kind of recogaition lf where denutyalwcave ws at. eis in thar sense chat I want tw redeting the general Feeling which more and mote people seem to have about themselves — that they are alsin sme way, reuily migrated Lean coin that phase The classic questions which every’ migeant faces ace texofeld: "Why ate you here" and ‘When ate vou going back home?’ No migrant ever knows the answer to the second {question until asked. Only then does she or he know thet really, in the deep sense, shejhe's never going back. Migration is one war tip. There is no “home’ to go back o, There never was. But ‘why are you here? is also a telly interesting question, which I've never been able to find 2 proper answer to either. I know the reasons one is supposed to give: for education’, forthe childrens’ sake’ or 1 bevet life, moreopporcuntis’, to enlarge the mind!’ etc. The uth is, [am here Because i's where my family is ot I really came here co get away feom my mother, Isn't that the universal ‘sory of lie? One is where one isto try and yet away from somewhere else. That was the story which I could never tell anybody about myself So | had to find other stories, other Fictions, which were more authencic of, at any rite, more acceptable, in place ofthe Big Seory ofthe endless evasion of patriarchal family life. Who | am — the “real” me was formed in relation to 2 whole set of other narratives, [8 aware of the fact chat identigy isan invention from the ver beginning, long before I understood any of cis theorecicaly Iencity 1 formed at the unstable point where the ‘unspeakable’ stores of subjectivity meet the narratives of history, of 2 culture. Aad since he/she is positioned in relation to cultured narcatives which have been profoundly expropriated the colonized subject is always “somewhere else’ doubly maginalized, displaced always ofr chan where he or she is, ois abe to speak from, Tewasn'ea joke whea [said the I migrated in order to get away from my family. I did. The problem, one discovers, that since one's family is always already “in here’, thece ts 00 ‘vay in which you can acualy leave them. Of courte, soonet (of later, they recede in memory, or even in life. But these are Persecution eed ene aot the “sits shat ealy matter I wish they sete still Ten gothat {digs have co cary chem around, locked UP Smewhete in my bead feom whieh vom, So ttoo he es, Tm ceiion to Chem, and then Seibel others evenly was aways a Cae SSching else, with some other real me’, which sand you ve,asvelived in Janaie, in alowce middle dats saa that as tng 0 bea mide cles Jamaican ale ray cebe an upper nudle cas Jamacan far vi WE TE Eatian Viciocan family =~ T mean the notion of Seen asa pace of ‘deni sx concept you ara pe ong before You ae able ro spel. Living With, ing though diference I remember the occasion when I wraacd te Jamaica on + vse sometime in thee 1955 SEatthe drt wane of migenon o England, my notes ad TE GaE Hope they dont think. you. mene of those Tangent doe er!” Ag of course, ath pot [kore teeth fat cme was an Borigra. Soden sn elation 0 {Richart of migraton, one version of the fal me came IMS lew: Toad "Of cours Em an immigean, What v0 vou mari ta? andse ud nth csc Jamaican miele hss SROEAEEE, ope the peopie over thee will hove 2 Webigrne of the long ond of shor per’ (They've been owing ever since. gee able that the insane one learns 10 be “38 immigrats one tecogizes one can't be 49 ig ar art enable place be then, went through be ez fmpocane polical eduction of discovering that 1a eae Sorting oneel a lck is another eecogniion eee) Gtough diferences cenain cleat panties and ora Gpkinst which one ter to deine onese, We Stet urderescinate the importance, 0 ean crucial corms that have happened in the wot, of chs Pant peop to consoroe themselves, psyche, i the BRAT SoEEe? eka tong been thouge eat tis i cell 2 ae eretla recngaion a rslaton oferesolacons, BORER rea in some place which vas always there Siang for one. The real me’ a st! eee ere biack: has aver bewn just there ther, I as alvath tan un unsabie ideny, papeically atoll ad ATR etoorbanacnive,cstory. a history, Something rans wal, spoken, aot simpy Found, People now SOONG he socty 1 cone from in ory uneecognizale {PGE Grouse Jalon a black sce they st. Ines TT QESRCREEL Sad brown people who lives for sree HeoUiead vers without ever being able to speak of see eee lick, Black is an ident whic hat co be dae ey could only be lesned in a cerain moment. Io Troe tha moments be tgven. So the notion that ens a ee can ase (be merphor — black oe white isa HP aever been the experience of black people 3s gueseon Mjapors. These ae imaginary communities — leas in te Stee eas fal cau te ae aso spmibalic BEI Lu could the. dalogue of dency beeen [cee and culeore eae paee> Pee a regmenations and dplacement then, the sae ecto real seto histones Burawhat at thee see eey en so many at this conference have “owned a crite condition? dors seem hat more wee rom ele now recognise rremscis nthe nares a er stn Bat the narmaves oF Saplacerent hase oa stions of existence, real monies in the eter world, which ave not only oF exclusils sat smpl ournese ofthe mid’ What that Ft rset’ Tc simply the recognition of 2 general se cua fagmenration a the end ofthe aoth centr? aie ea tat he selfs awa, in a 2nse 9 feton, oat SAD ids ot closures’ which ave required co creas ie es oF adenaiaion “= nation, ethnic #ouPs Soules ete ate arbicenry closures: and the Lamy al scion, wheter mverment oF Hares oF SRE Ric oo, ae temporars, pai arbitra elese ae ay imporan ain when one recov hat SEs enacted acre difernce aa beens 9 8 svi che polities of diference. Buc doesn’: the acceptance of the sctional ne narrative status of idemiey in relanion so the trorld ake equite asa necessity, is upposice — the momeat weary ciosute: Is t possible for there to Be action 0° ‘enaty in the world without arbitrary closure — wise one fright call che neceasigy #0 meaning of the end of the Reatenee? Potentially, discourse is endless: the infinite Semiosis of meaning. But to say anything a all in paroculae, tou do have to stop talking. OF course, every fll stop is provisional, The next sentence will ake nearly all of

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