Reframing Latin America: A Cultural Theory Reading ... - BGSU Blogs

some closing comments 335
We tell them that our identities are being constructed in the very process of
naming ourselves and being named by others. We tell them to experiment
with divorcing themselves from the clues (racial, gender, national, etc.) that
we have been taught to identify as real and meaningful. We encourage them
to consider how we have been trained throughout our lives to see differences
and to believe that these differences matter essentially rather than
temporarily, and that truths are inalienable and ontological rather than
temporal and socially mediated.
After all, we ask, what can it hurt? Even if following our suggestions
feels uncomfortable, there is plenty of modernist reinforcement out there.
There are plenty of movies, books, news programs, politicians, religious
leaders, teachers, family members, advertisements, music, and friends who
will gladly tell you not to worry: truth is as solid as it ever was, our selves
are as secure and real as they were when Descartes revealed them to us, and
you need not worry about those postmodernists who say that transitioning
into postmodernity is inevitable. But try applying cultural theory to your
own life. It can’t hurt, and maybe you will fi nd out that the ever-shifting
space of social construction is a powerful and a life-affirming place.
notes
1. Mark Taylor, “What Derrida Really Meant,” New York Times, 14 Oct.
2004: A29.
2. Martha Nussbaum, “Patriotism and Cosmopolitanism,” ed. Joshua
Cohen, For Love of Country: Debating the Limits of Patriotism (Boston:
Beacon, 1996). The quote is from an online version .
3. Taylor A29.
4. Edward Said, The World, the Text and the Critic (Cambridge: Harvard
UP, 1983) 34.
5. Taylor A29.
6. Taylor A29.
7. Said 34.
8. Glenn Ward, Teach Yourself Postmodernism (Lincolnwood, IL: NTC,
1997) 184.