Critical Engagements with Culture and Self

Abstract

This issue takes the binary of ‘culture’ and ‘self’ to be a problem of theorizing an entrenched dualism by simultaneously breaking down the dichotomy and re-theorizing its inherently contested members. In this introduction we describe briefly the problems confronting this theoretical project, the manner in which alternative frames of analysis can be brought to bear on the question, and the ways in which the authors of this issue have addressed their task. While eschewing the dichotomies of culture and self through an analysis of the experiences of body, emotions, colonization, immigration, gender, representation and language itself, these articles bring out considerations of culture and self that provide new opportunities for investigation, theory and understanding. We view this special issue as one that provides a range of tools within which to theorize the problematic of ‘self and culture’.