POSTMODERN AND IDENTITY: ALTERNATIVE INTERPRETATIONS

• Main Author: Ekaterina Sergeevna Maslova
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Science and Innovation Center Publishing House 2019-08-01
• Series: Sovremennye Issledovaniâ Socialʹnyh Problem
• Subjects: постмодерн; кризис идентичности; личность; гуманизм; деконструкция идентичности; диффузия идентичности
• Online Access: http://journal-s.org/index.php/mrsp/article/view/12248

In the postmodern era, identity becomes problematic. The aim of the study is to analyze the reflection of the crisis of the traditional identity of the individual. The method of work is a comparative analysis of alternative interpretations of the transformation of the identity of the individual in the socio-cultural situation of the postmodern and in the philosophical self-consciousness of the postmodern. The position of apologists and adherents of postmodern transformations is that the old traditional identity and limited classical humanism are leaving the postmodern society, and a new humanism and a new postmodern identity is coming. The position of critics of postmodernists, defenders of traditionalism interprets the crisis of traditional identity in postmodern society as a fundamental crisis of the humanistic essence of identity, the destruction of the identity of the individual as such. Common to both positions is the recognition of the crisis of traditional identity and classical humanism. Postmodern apologists emphasize that as a result of this process, a new, higher form of postmodern identity is born, which is viewed as a project built by the personality itself, which is completely free, creative, and allows the individual to gain full self-expression. Critics point out the destructive nature of postmodern identity transformations, which lead to the deformation not only of the processes of personal identification, but also to the formation of ineffective, flawed forms of identity. Comparing the positions of apologists and critics with actual identity transformations, the author argues that the crisis of classical humanism and traditional fundamentalist identity is accompanied by both the constructive potential of the formation of a new more humanistic identity and the potential threats of dehumanization and destruction of identity as such.