Wealth of Selves

Contents

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Acknowledgments

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pp. ix-xi

This book has undergone a half-dozen major iterations over the past ten years, and I am deeply indebted to many people who discussed the idea of multiple identities with me at various times. Comments from others that may have seemed slight to them nonetheless made vital contributions to the twists and turns that this project has taken ...

Introduction

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pp. 1-21

Some say philosophy is the love of wisdom—and that love is erotic. Others say philosophy is like private investigation. It is the search for clues to knowledge about aspects of life that we do not yet fully understand. In political philosophy there is truth in both of these descriptions.¹ Consequently, this book is a kind of philosophical mystery ...

1. Multiple Identities and Immigrant Political Loyalty Replies to the Query Who Are We?

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pp. 22-53

Th e political significance of multiple identities arises from more than their sheer multiplicity. Other characteristics include their group based formation, their contextual expression, and their potential for varying presentation. Failure to consider these and other aspects of multiple identities can generate false conclusions regarding their...

2. Mestiza Consciousness and Intersectionality Toward an Interdisciplinary Framework of Multiple Identities

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pp. 54-82

The previous chapter’s discussion of the multiple identities of U.S. Latinos suggests that a thorough understanding of the political implications of multiple identities requires a more detailed and rigorous account of multiple identities than is presently available. While multiple identities are being discussed more and more in political...

3. Identity Contradiction in Creative and Critical Th ought Th e Case of Nazi J

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pp. 83-108

The previous chapter began to build upon Gloria Anzaldúa’s account of mestiza consciousness to construct a theoretical framework of multiple identities. Within this framework identity schemes operate as composite components within a decentered and embodied subjectivity. Different identity schemes and other pieces of internalized...

4. The Two-Tiered Cohesion of Decentered Subjectivity A Herdsman’s Maps and the Politics of Disordered Contradiction

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pp. 109-139

In the previous chapter, I set out reasons for regarding identity contradiction as a necessary and valuable resource for critical and creative thought. Yet, as Gloria Anzald�a has stressed, the value of identity contradiction is also contradictory. For while identity contradictions are necessary, and at times fruitful for critical thought in...

5. Ambivalence and Life Projects Love, Politics, and Self-Integration in Casablanca

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pp. 140-174

In this chapter, I examine two competing approaches to selfintegration reflected in the epigraphs above by Jane Flax and Alasdair MacIntyre. My aim is to investigate the overall character of the selfintegration of multiple identities. Are subjects best self-integrated by building a tightly unified, conflict-free subjectivity centered by a life...

6. Selfcraft Love and Politics in the Self-Integration of Multiple Identities

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pp. 175-206

In the previous chapter, I argued that self-integration of multiple identities is fostered by ambivalence and flexibility, and that integrative life projects offer a means by which to integrate contradictory elements of the self which rank-ordered endorsements and coherent life narratives cannot incorporate. The question remains, however...

Conclusions: Racial Akrasia, Selfcraft , and the Defragmentation of Self and Society

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pp. 207-229

In this concluding chapter, I explore the relevance of multiple identities for political life. The multiple identities and identity contradictions within us are constructed, in part, as a consequence of social divides and political conflicts. Thus, decentered subjectivity can be seen as a location for grappling with those conflicts. In other...

Notes

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pp. 231-266

Bibliography

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pp. 267-281

Index

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pp. 283-290