Juliane Hess

¿Quién soy yo? - Self-Identification an Juliane Hess

Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 1,0, Ernst Moritz Arndt University of Greifswald (Institut für Anglistik/Amerikanistik), course: Chicano/Chicana Culture and Literature in the USA, language: English, abstract: ¿Quién soy yo? or Who am I? One question is expressed in two languages. But there are numerous answers one can give. Some would say their gender and define themselves as being a man or a woman. Others would simply give their names or their religions. One could also reveal the nationality, the origin or the own social strata. There are a lot of possible answers to this question as humans perceive and identify themselves differently. But people cannot say who they are by using just one single criterion. "Of course, all of us have multiple identities. We may identify ourselves simultaneously as, for instance, woman, socialist, ecological farmer, world citizen, mother, daughter, wife, researcher, Finnish, Scandinavian, European, witch, theosopher, lover of music and plants, and so on (Fishman 54)." Having a closer look at the meaning of the word "identity" the Oxford English Dictionary gives a proper definition of the word: "identities are the characteristics, feelings or beliefs that distinguish people from others." This definition shows that identities are not just formed by the own person. It must rather be seen in relation to other humans. The system of society prescribes certain role models humans are expected to fulfil be it on grounds of their sex, race or their economic class. This is also what the personal identity shapes. What if someone does not really know who he or she? Of course, there are some basic answers one can give like the gender or the name but in some cases it is quite hard for people to be aware of themselves. Some marginal groups do not have that feeling of belonging to either side, for example black or white. They are brown, or simply an "in-between case". They are a mixture of both col