In a paper consisting of 8 pages four writers define cultural identity and discuss how they have reconciled multiculturalism with a sense of their own ethnic identity. Four sources are cited in the bibliography.
Name of Research Paper File: JL5_JLident.rtf
Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
cultural identity is defined and perceived by four authors, in terms of the way in which they see themselves and the way in which they interact with society as a
whole. The four writers all see themselves as belonging to more than one culture, and have different strategies for dealing both with the way that they are perceived by others
and the way that they construct their own identities.
Hong, for instance, investigates incidents in her past to find reasons for her non-conformity to her culture; Rich attempts to integrate all the different elements of her heritage
and experience into a coherent whole; Baldwin looks at the way race is defined by society and the way that this affects him personally.
The issue of cultural identity is dealt with from several different standpoints, reflecting not
only the range of diversity in American culture but also the problematic nature of identity itself. --------------------------------------------------------------------------
The four pieces chosen have in common the way that the authors come to terms with their
own sense of identity, and in particular the fact that they feel themselves divided between two or more cultural or racial identities. The student could therefore consider some of the
ways in which human beings define their identity, in relation to their heritage and ancestry, their self-perception, and the way that they see themselves as integrated into the community, and