A Multimodal Approach to Identity: Theorizing the Self though Embodiment, Spatiality, and Temporality

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-2012

Abstract

This article problematizes the theoretical assumption of communication-as-symbolic that delimits the way identity is theorized. I argue that deconstructing identity requires moving beyond the symbolic construction of social categories, and instead focusing on how a perceptual and embodied subject is constituted through communication. Informed by Merleau-Ponty's phenomenologically driven approach to critical inquiry, I present a multimodal approach that reveals how perceptual subjectivity and the reflexive body are constituted within, and constitutive of, the symbolic mechanisms of social construction. Utilizing various examples pertinent to intercultural communication, I theorize cultural identity through the perspective of communication-as-embodied.

Department

Communication Studies

Publication Title

Journal of International and Intercultural Communication

DOI

10.1080/17513057.2012.689314

Share

COinS