Reflection

My most memorable post was in response to Nella Larsen's Passing. In this post, I constructed a love letter from Clare to Irene, in which the former explained that she willingly jumped out the window in order to avoid the drama of passing as white and passing as heterosexual. This was the most memorable post for me because this was my second time reading Larsen's novel, and the metaphor of passing with regards to sexual orientation is very intriguing to me.

The notion of invisible identities and whether or not they should be claimed interests me. It's hard to hide/change visible identities, yet it's quite possible to avoid disclosure with certain invisible identities, like sexual orientation. I wonder often about the intersectionality of visible and invisible identities, as well as the idea of a primary identity. Can identities other than race be 'metalanguages' as well?

I've learned a lot about the history of various identities in this class, which has been an interesting approach for me. I'm used to discussing identities as socially constructed, instable, identities that have little attachment to a collective history, since I've always felt like history gives identity more stability and thus more power to essentialize and exclude. However, it's been so great to look at identity through literature, film, and primary sources in order to see how the construction of various identities has changed over time.

I recently read an article by queer theorist Lisa Duggan in which she defined identity as a narrative. Considering identity in this way seems valid, and helps change history from classical music into jazz, and allows intersectionality and various historical sources/forces to engage each other in constructive and performative dialogue. I guess the one big question I still have, however, is one that has been the underlying theme of our course: who am I? If my identity is fluid and constantly in the process of construction, how can I know what part of my identity is real and what part of it is merely transitory and meaningless? I'm glad I've been able to start asking these questions sooner rather than later.