Identity and Its Discontents

A Snapshot of Contemporaneity
1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-041-42877-0
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 160 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm

This book examines the crisis of identity in contemporary culture through a literary and philosophical lens, arguing that the postmodern celebration of multiple identities and hybridity has created a condition fundamentally incompatible with humanity's need for meaning. The author explores concepts of authenticity, bad faith, psychological doubling, and solitude not merely as postmodern phenomena but as enduring cultural conditions shaped by historical and structural forces. Each chapter addresses fundamental questions about selfhood, language, and the human capacity for meaning-making in an age dominated by signs, images, and surface-level engagement. Human sciences are responsible.

The book is essential reading for scholars and postgraduate students in comparative literature, literary theory, philosophy, cultural studies, and sociology. It will also appeal to readers interested in identity studies and the cultural dynamics of contemporaneity. Conceived with both theoretical depth and accessible analysis, this text is an indispensable reading for all those concerned with the postmodern condition.

Zielgruppe

Academic, General, and Postgraduate

Autoren/Hrsg.

Castelli, Alberto

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literarische Strömungen & Epochen
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Sozialphilosophie, Politische Philosophie
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften Interdisziplinär Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Chapter 1. Is it Possible to be Authentic? A Fictional Answer Chapter 2. The Bad Faith of the Nonexistent Knight: If Sartre Reads Calvino Chapter 3. The Sound of Silence Chapter 4. Identity: A Chamber of Torture Chapter 5. Something Else About Love and Literature Chapter 6. The School of Athens before Fahrenheit 451: All That Remains Chapter 7. Words Fail Us: The Crisis of The Language Chapter 8. An Additional Note

Über Autor(innen)

Alberto Castelli is a writer and a humanities professor at Hainan University, China. Chiefly, he is engaged with Modernism, Postmodern dynamics, and Cross-Cultural Studies. He is the author of “Perspectives on Asia: is China kitsch?” (2021) and “Bipolarism in the Nineteenth Century Novel” (2023). Most recently, his publications include Eros and Thanatos. Love Across Civilizations (2023) and Love, Beauty or Morality (2024).