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The Castle - Language, Identity and Culture - Multimodal Assessment Task – Sample Scaffold - 2024

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The Castle (1997 Film)

Language and connections to culture in the castle anonymous 12th grade.

Texts employ language to urge readers to think more thoroughly about people's cultural ties. Language is used in a variety of ways to communicate cultural differences and group identity. This can be seen in Rob Sitch’s 1997 iconic film ‘The Castle’. Sitch highlights lanage and uses the characters to represent the Australian stereotypes and the Kerrigan families simplicity. The protagonist Darryl Kerrigan, who passionately depicts himself as an underdog and "Aussie battler" who tries to defend his family and his "Castle" against superior government power, is primarily responsible for the film's unique Australian vernacular language. Through this Daryl emphasises the value of a loving and respected family culture, which he feels is worth defending and gives an overall reflection of Australia's language, identity, and culture.

A person's or a group's identity is defined by the traits, beliefs, character, personality, appearance, or expressions that define them. Through language the Kerrigan family distinguishes themselves as a typical hard working Australian family who is fortunate and appreciative of being living and well which displays Australian identity .The Kerrigan family and their neighborhood's usage of language is highly...

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Language, Identity & Culture

In this module, you will examine how language is used to represent identity and culture. The culture in question is middle class Australia.

Context & Purpose

Although The Castle was released in the late 1990s, its aesthetic qualities are more reminiscent of the 1980s, and the values it explores are considered to be equally outdated – that is, the patriarchal family structure and conservatism of the Kerrigans evokes the idealised 1950s nuclear family and society more broadly.

That the film blends mid-century values with late-century aesthetics is not a coincidence; the 1980s and 1990s was a period of rapid change for not only Australia but the world, as globalisation prompted rapid urbanisation and the proliferation of technology – developments that were supported by rising immigration and multiculturalism. This was obviously extremely disruptive and presented a challenge to many Australians who could not keep up with the pace of change. It was during the late twentieth century that existing divisions between the working and upper classes became more prominent, as the wealth that came from globalisation was not distributed equally. 

More immediately, the film was produced during a period of declining interest and funding in Australian media and entertainment. In consequence, the film was made on a low budget. 

Relationship between Language and Collective Identity

The Castle makes the scope of the Kerrigans’ world immediately clear; they are a small-town family whose concerns do not extend beyond their neighbourhood, or even their home. From the outset, it is clear that language plays a crucial role in the formation and maintenance of their sense of identity: family dinners, and direct conversations are key. It is ultimately because this way of life is challenged that the Kerrigans find the legal battle with the government so destabilising and traumatic; they are unused to dealing with legal briefs, communicating through lawyers and, most obviously, the complex legal jargon used by the government and the courts. 

We can track the disruption the legal battle causes to the Kerrigan’s sense of the world through the growing tension during dinnertime conversations, and gradual withdrawal of individual family members from family discussions. 

It is then significant that it is ultimately Lawrence Hammill, with his distinctively sophisticated demeanour, is the person who is responsible for rescuing the Kerrigans from their crisis. Despite the glaring differences in their backgrounds, values and the ways in which they present themselves, the men are somehow able to form an alliance, as Hammill uses his legal knowledge, ostensibly provided to him by virtue of his privileged position in society, to aid Darryl. Indeed, the men are able to overcome their differences – best represented by their completely different use of language – to take down corporate Australia and the elitism it embodies. 

The film also makes a comment on the nature of the relationship between White Australia and Australia’s Aboriginal heritage. This is most clearly represented when Darryl states ‘I’m really starting to understand how the Aborigines feel’ as he describes his anguish over the potential loss of his family home. Obviously, this is extremely insensitive, but it does capture the lack of understanding many Australians have of the history of colonisation and capitalism, which the film suggests is partly because of educational and class disparities. 

Plot Summary

The film follows the story of the Kerrigan family, led by patriarch Darryl, as they engage in a legal battle against a private company, Airlink, and the local government over the planned expansion of the airport.

Dale, the eldest son, introduces us to his family via narration. He paints a portrait of a family that is as loving as it is unique and quirky. And yet, there is a degree of comfort and family that is found in the apparent wholesomeness of the Kerrigan situation. 

The positive energy and humour radiated by the Kerrigans is disrupted when the local council orders for the land their house sits on to be valued. Shortly after, the Kerrigans receive a letter from the council, saying that their house has been compulsorily acquired. Outraged and confused, Darryl visits the local council, where he discovers that it is working in partnership with the state government and a private company, Airlink, to expand the airport. Darryl seeks legal counsel from the family solicitor, Dennis Denuto. 

Dennis arranges for Darryl to attend the administrative affairs tribunal the following Monday, where he will make his case to retain his family home. Wanting to escape the bad energy created by the looming crisis, Darryl takes his family to Bonnie Doon in the meantime, where Tracey and Con (Dale’s older sister and her husband) recount a recent trip to Thailand and their experience of a new culture there. The family returns to their home revitalised and encouraged, but their energy is crushed when Darryl, accompanied to the tribunal by his neighbour Farouk, loses the case. Despite the loss, his determination remains intact. 

A man arrives at the Kerrigan household and threatens Darryl to take the money offered by the government. Steve (Dale’s older brother) scares him off with a shotgun. This motivates Darryl to step up his protest campaign, and the next day, at a meeting with his neighbours, he organises to have Denis represent them at the Supreme Court. 

As Darryl awaits the verdict at the Supreme Court, he speaks with Lawrence Hammill, the father of a barrister appearing for the first time. Darryl reveals the dilemma he’s in, before discovering that he’s lost his case. 

A short while later, as Darryl is putting the contents of the pool room in his house into moving boxes and reminisces on the memories the room contains, he is visited by Lawrence Hammill. Hammill offers to represent Darryl at the High Court of Australia, pro bono (for free). 

At the High Court, Hammill makes an emotional and passionate appeal, making reference to the Australian Constitution throughout. He is successful, and Darryl returns home victorious. 

The film ends with a montage depicting the happy futures of the different residents. We see Wayne (another of Dale’s older brothers) released from prison, and most significantly, the unexpected friendship between Darryl and Hammill. 

Cultural Assumptions

The text examines the following cultural assumptions that audiences, and society more broadly, may have about the Australian lower-middle class

That they are uneducated

The Castle demonstrates how language is used by people in positions of power to manipulate others, especially individuals who are already in a less privileged or powerful position, resulting in further disempowerment and marginalisation. The complex vocabulary and refined accent of the people working for Airlink and the lawyers is contrasted with the exaggerated accents of the Kerrigans, to further highlight their lack of education. 

Throughout the text, the Kerrigans are constantly depicted making statements that are at most wildly ignorant, and at the very least reflective of a lack of education or knowledge about the world in which they exist.  An example of this is Darryl’s ‘over-simplification’ of the Australian constitution, ‘it’s the vibe of the thing!’ makes clear his lack of education, even if his poor choice of words in this moment is mostly because of the strong emotions he’s feeling. 

They have strong family values

The Castle reflects the extent to which long-held assumptions about what was valued by Australians came under threat by the growth of the corporate and political worlds. This is perhaps best encapsulated in the exchange between the Airlink lawyer and Darryl: the lawyer calls the Kerrigan family home ‘an eyesore,’ failing to see its sentimental significance as a symbol of the family’s hard work, and Darryl replies with ‘What are you calling an eyesore? It’s a home, you dickhead!’

The Kerrigans’ belief in the right to a home and the stability it provides is not shared by Denis and the others involved in the legal proceedings, who have a better grasp of the realities of the power of corporations and the relative insignificance of the Kerrigans’ position. 

From the outset, the film emphasises the value the Kerrigans, especially the patriarch, Darryl, place on family. Think of the opening sequence, in which we see a vibrant, family dinner taking place. In the opening sequence depicts the Kerrigans sitting down for family dinner, with Darryl at the head of the table symbolising his importance as the patriarch and reaffirming conservative views of gender roles and family structure. This is reaffirmed by Dale’s narration, in which he characterises his father as the ‘backbone’ of the family. 

That they are ignorant on racial issues

This is shown to be a product of Kerrigans’ ostensible lack of education. They frequently make racially insensitive comments or assumptions about their ethnic neighbours or friends. The film presents their racism in such a way so that we laugh and take pity on them for it. The Kerrigan’s ignorance towards racial issues is encapsulated within what is arguably the film’s most famous line: ‘I’m beginning to understand how the Aborigines feel… This house is like their land.’ Darryl’s reference to the issue of land rights reveals his basic understanding of the horrors and trauma suffered by Indigenous peoples, and his overall failure to grasp the inappropriateness of drawing a parallel between his situation and the attempted genocide of that population. 

That they are suspicious of the upper classes

The Kerrigans believe hard, honest work is the only legitimate means to wealth and success. They simultaneously believe that ideals such as wealth and success are vapid, and that they shouldn’t be valued. It is this belief that forms the core of their suspicion of the upper classes; they do not think people who find fulfilment in making money from the exploitation and suffering of others should be respected.  In the courtroom scene, the use of a high angle shot when the camera is pointed towards Darryl, depicting him from the judge’s perspective, and a low angle shot to represent his view of the judge, captures the resentment with which he interacts with the upper classes, and his grasp of the inequality that exists between his world and that of the judge’s. 

The value of hard work

In a similar vein to their suspicion of the upper classes, the Kerrigans also believe that honest, hard work should be respected and valued. Whether the film affirms or challenges this assumption is a question with no clear answer. Indeed, it does both. But ultimately, it challenges it: we see the Kerrigans’ hard work and earnestness completely dismissed, and it is only by seeking the help of Hammill, a barrister, that they are able to win the court case. In the example ‘You know why people like that get their way? Because people like us don’t stand up to them. You’ve just got to play by the rules.’ This quote from Darryl reflects his belief in the Australian values of fairness and respect – values he does not see in the Airlink people. 

That less-financially able individuals are able to be bought out

The idea that people like the Kerrigans, who have no real political influence or financial power, can simply be bought out by more powerful entities, is disrupted by Darryl’s decision to challenge the council and Airlink. Because of the value they place on family and hard work, and their suspicion of the upper classes, they refuse to simply be bought out. Darryl’s resistance to the idea that less-financially able individuals can simply be bought out is captured in his emotive declaration ‘You just can’t walk in and take a man’s house… It’s the law of bloody common sense.’ Notice too his use of distinctively Australian language to describe his situation – here, it becomes clear that he believes that what he is standing up for is at the heart of what it means to be Australian. 

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Over-identification in The Castle : Recovering an Australian Classic’s Subversive Edge

“My name is Dale Kerrigan, and this is my story. Our family lives at 3 Highview Crescent, Coolaroo. Dad bought this place 15 years ago for a steal.” With these words, that open The Castle (Rob Sitch, 1997), the ideology that motivates the characters and that drives the film’s narrative becomes immediately manifest: identity is inextricably linked to home ownership, the foundation of the “Australian Dream”. Over the course of the film, tow‑truck driving, working class “battler” and Kerrigan patriarch, Darryl, defies a government agency’s attempts to compulsorily acquire his family’s home. Against all odds he succeeds in his appeal to the High Court, establishing the legal precedent that “a man’s home is his castle” – effectively codifying the ideology of the Australian Dream as law and recording a victory for the “ordinary man”.

In 2006, Mark Vaile, then Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, shared his admiration for The Castle . He is quoted as praising it for showing that “there is nothing more important than family and that sticking together through the tough times is what gets you through 2 .” Vaile is not alone in his appreciation of the film, which has become adored in Australia. Indeed, many Australians strongly identify with the The Castle ’s characters. A 2010 survey found that the general public felt the film best represented the “real Australia”, and that Darryl Kerrigan was their favourite Australian film character 3 . Select lines from the film, meanwhile, have become a part of Australian vernacular – most notably, “it’s the vibe of the thing,”, and Darryl’s oft-repeated “tell him he’s dreaming.”

Yet while The Castle ’s popularity may have proven beneficial for Australian cinema, it has also had the effect of dulling the film’s subversive edge. The purpose of this essay is to bring that subversive quality back to the fore. Throughout The Castle , audiences are amused by Darryl’s delight in the most simple of pleasures: his wife’s uninspiring cooking, the serenity experienced at the family’s kit home in rural Bonnie Doon, securing a bargain through the newspaper’s classifieds sections, or the many items that take pride of place in his home’s pool room. Yet our laughter at these “simple” figures – caricatures of naïve working‑class individuals, or “Aussie Battlers” – and the distance this laughter creates between the viewer and the character, actually operates as a self-denial on the part of the supposedly more enlightened audience of their own subjection to the very same ideology that informs the Kerrigans’ actions. Discussing the function of laughter, Mladen Dolar, a prominent member of the Ljubljana Lacanian School, writes:

Laughter is a condition of ideology. It provides us with the very space in which ideology can take its full swing. It is only with laughter that we become ideological subjects, withdrawn from the immediate pressure of ideological claims to a free enclave. It is only when we laugh and breathe freely that ideology truly has a hold on us – it is only here that it starts functioning fully as ideology, with the specifically ideological means, which are supposed to assure our free content and the appearance of spontaneity, eliminating the need for the non-ideological means of outside constraint. [emphasis in the original] 4

Yet our laughter at the The Castle ’s principal characters and their adherence to the ideology of the Australian Dream in fact reflects an obliviousness to our own embeddedness within this very same ideological framework. The way in which we establish ourselves as the father to the “children” that are the Kerrigans masks our own position as children in relation to the Ideological State Apparatuses (ISAs) that Louis Althusser identifies as operating to construct subjectivity 5 . The film’s exposure of patriarchal structures – Darryl taking charge to save his home and his family, and then his ultimate “rescue” thanks to the upper-crust Lawrence Hammill QC – reflects a political turn in Australia which, under the conservative government of John Howard that was elected in 1996, adopted a “leave it to the government” approach. As Lisa Milner has written, this was an era in which Australians were encouraged to feel at ease about their disengagement from politics 6

Developing on the above, this paper will argue that in The Castle ’s reflection of this ideological system, and of the individual’s ultimate powerlessness under it, there also exists the possibility for its very subversion. While for many The Castle may simply be a tale about a battler beating “the man” (as the Kerrigans’ comically incompetent lawyer Dennis Denuto puts it in court, “it’s your classic case of big business trying to take land and they couldn’t”), the film can also operate as a demystification and critique of prevailing ideology. Indeed, The Castle can be understood as overidentifying with ideology, and in the “surplus” of ideology in the film – this excessive association with the Australian Dream – there is a simultaneous affirmation and destabilisation of this very concept. This “subversive affirmation” – which will be explicated with reference to the writings of Inke Arns and Sylvia Sasse as well as through a consideration of Slovene musical group Laibach, early proponents of such strategies – in actuality has a political effect. However comic The Castle may be, its overt representation of ideology can actually be understood as enacting a self-reflexivity on the part of the viewer that undermines the disengagement from politics that was being encouraged in late 1990s Australia.

The Australian Dream and the Kerrigans

In order to better understand the context out of which The Castle emerges, some discussion of the “Australian Dream”, to which the Kerrigans subscribe, and which has become ingrained in the collective Australian psyche, is necessary. While comparable in many respects to its more famous American counterpart, the Australian Dream centres on ownership of a detached house on a fenced-off block of land – complete with that iconic Australian invention, the Hills Hoist rotary clothes line 7 . In a nation principally populated by those of a migrant background, home ownership has developed an integral importance as the ultimate reflection of the opportunity presented by a new start in Australia.

In fact, home ownership is so important in Australia that its achievement has been identified as the “defining moment” in the housing careers of nearly 70 per cent of households at any one point since the 1960s 8 . So common was home ownership by the 1990s, that in 1991, only five years before The Castle was filmed, nearly 90 per cent of households became home owners at some stage of their lives 9 . Fundamentally, home ownership operates as a safety net for Australian families, and a footing for economic and personal independence.

On more structural terms, the importance of home ownership is also predicated on its position as a cornerstone of the Australian welfare state. In his examination of this welfare state’s institutional design elements, Francis G. Castles concludes:

It is impossible to understand the adequacy of Australian income support provision … without some consideration of the role of home ownership. … In Australia, where the prevailing social policy strategy has involved the modification of the primary income distribution via wage control, but state welfare expenditure is relatively low, horizontal redistribution becomes primarily a responsibility of the individual rather than the State. Individuals must save enough from their current wages to meet future eventualities, by far the most significant of which is the need for adequate income support in old age. Under these circumstances, therefore, home ownership and occupational welfare become the major guarantees of horizontal distribution for most families 10 .

A working paper by the Australian Institute of Family Studies explains that Australia’s statutory mandate that a living wage be paid also brings with it the responsibility to save to provide for oneself in old age 11 . The age pension is modest, and claimants are always income and asset tested (and are barred from disposing of assets in the five years prior to making a claim for a pension). This has meant that the primary way Australians have saved for retirement is through the purchase of owner-occupied housing which then enables forced savings to accumulate as the asset value of the house transfers to the owner-occupier through mortgage repayments. The house is generally paid off by retirement, minimising both housing costs and the amount of income support needed in later life. Thus, as Castles identifies, saving for retirement in Australia is more individually centred, as opposed to the collective saving for social security provisions that typifies many European welfare states 12 .

Through The Castle , we can appreciate that it is the security of home ownership that allows Darryl to delight in those very simple pleasures we mock him for enjoying. Yet Darryl’s ambitions ultimately mirror those of the many viewers who identify with him. While we may laugh at him, we also share his concerns. Thus, at stake in Darryl’s attempts to resist the compulsory acquisition of 3 Highview Crescent is not simply retention of the family home, but those very freedoms and securities that stem from its possession and which are coveted by the film’s audience.

The viewer as father

Having provided an admittedly brief illumination of the Australian Dream, I wish now to offer an explanation, through the writings of Sigmund Freud, of how a viewer’s initial response to The Castle may operate. In his 1928 journal article on humour, Freud writes:

If we turn to consider the situation in which one person adopts a humorous attitude towards others, one view … is this: that the one is adopting towards the other the attitude of an adult towards a child, and smiling at the triviality of the interests and sufferings which seem to the child so big. Thus the humourist acquires his superiority by assuming the role of the grown-up, identifying himself to some extent with the father, while he reduces the other people to the position of children. 13

A superficial reading of The Castle may do just this. When a viewer giggles at the Kerrigans and what they enjoy, when they are amused by Dennis Denuto’s incompetence, they are laughing at them. After all, even if viewers of The Castle can relate to the Kerrigans, as indeed many do, it is unlikely they truly see themselves mirrored in the exaggerated caricatures on the screen. When we parrot dialogue from the film there is a tacit acknowledgement that, in repeating this dialogue, we are “stepping down” to the Kerrigans’ level. On Freudian terms, we are the “father” to the foolish Kerrigan children.

Yet in this laughter, and one’s positioning themselves in this way, what is really occurring is a denial of one’s own status as “child” to a broader ideological structure. Freud’s essay continues by stating:

…a man adopts a humorous attitude towards himself in order to ward off possible suffering. Is there any sense in saying that someone is treating himself like a child and is at the same time playing the part of the superior adult in relation to this child? 14

This is what ultimately occurs in this common response to The Castle . The laughter of the viewer, as they witness the Kerrigans’ almost cultish dedication and devotion to their house and the accompanying ideology around the Australian Dream, masks that very same viewer’s own embeddedness within that ideology (in the Australian context at least). As described above, the idea of home ownership is so fundamental to the constitution of the Australian state that the rhetoric of the Australian Dream is inescapable. It infiltrates every aspect of life in the country, every sector of society, and is ultimately unavoidable. The only difference between the “father” and the “child” in this instance, however, is that the Kerrigans are open about their identification with this ideology, while the amused viewer thinks themselves above interpellation.

The history of subversive affirmation and Laibach

Laibach, Laibach , 1980, linocut, 59 x 43 cm

It is in the Kerrigans’ overt identification with this ideology that a truly subversive edge to The Castle might be identified. It is the film’s excess of ideology that calls into question that ideology itself – a process that, in analogous circumstances, has been labelled “subversive affirmation”. A lucid overview of this concept and its history is provided by Inke Arns and Sylvia Sasse in their essay “Subversive Affirmation: On Mimesis as a Strategy of Resistance”. 15 While they locate its origins in the 1920s, Arns and Sasse attribute the increasing use of subversive affirmation in the West since the second half of the 1990s to the technique’s adoption in socialist Eastern Europe after the 1960s. They describe the practice as follows:

Subversive affirmation is an artistic/political tactic that allows artists/activists to take part in certain social, political or economic discourses and to affirm, appropriate, or consume them while simultaneously undermining them… In subversive affirmation there is always a surplus which destabilises affirmation and turns it into its opposite. 16

A paradigmatic example of this, and one necessary to interrogate before returning to The Castle , is the career of Slovene musical group Laibach – the musical wing of the broader multidisciplinary Neue Slowenische Kunst (NSK) art collective. Of the group, Alexei Monroe writes:

“Laibach” was the name by which the Slovene capital Ljubljana was known during the Nazi occupation of the city (1943-45) and under the Austrian Habsburg Empire (the name was first recorded in 1144). Laibach’s cross was not a direct reference to anything else, but had several associations. … [Among these are] the black cross markings on Second World War German military vehicles and aircraft 17 .

Laibach, The Deadly Dance , 1980, linocut, 59 x 43 cm

The problematic associations of the name Laibach, as well as the appropriation of military symbols and the violence of the posters announcing the group’s formation, naturally proved controversial, and Laibach developed some notoriety for what Marina Gržinić terms their “hyper-literal repetition of the totalitarian ritual 18 .” Arns and Sasse assert that:

With Laibach and NSK, we are dealing with a subversive strategy that Slavoj Žižek termed a radical “over-identification” with the “hidden reverse” of the ruling ideology regulating social relationships. By employing every identifying element delivered either explicitly or implicitly by the official ideology, Laibach Kunst and later Neue Slowenische Kunst appeared on stage and in public as an organisation that seemed “even more total that totalitarianism 19 .”

Two case studies provide examples of such over-identification. The first is an event of 1986-87, when the NSK’s Novi Kolektivizem (New Collectivism) design department submitted a creation based on a Nazi poster to a competition organised for the Day of Youth celebrated on 25 May, Tito’s birthday. They received first prize for their work which simply replaced certain Nazi insignia with Yugoslav equivalents. The committee judging submissions praised NSK for their poster, arguing that it “expresses the highest ideals of the Yugoslavian state.” The Day of Youth poster controversy exemplifies NSK’s working method during this period, which Anthony Gardner explains as follows:

… NSK did not slavishly illustrate the state ideals in the manner of socialist realism or other official aesthetics. Rather, it self-consciously and controversially combined such illustrations with images from earlier totalitarian regimes, suggesting an ideological continuum between post-Tito Yugoslavia and its oppressive antecedents 20 .

New Collectivism’s prize-winning work (left) and its Nazi antecedent (right)

This “hyper-literal repetition of the totalitarian ritual”, to repeat Gržinić’s words, also comes through in the aesthetics of Laibach’s music videos and live performances. Perhaps the best example is 1987’s “Opus Dei (Life is Life)”, which saw Laibach rework Austrian band Opus’ hit single “Live is Life”, turning the Top-40 feel‑good anthem on its head 21 . Gone was its catchy poppiness, replaced by distorted guitars and marching drums. Suddenly the track became a fascistic call-to-arms, with Laibach’s members appearing in olive military attire and polished army boots in the accompanying music video.

Still from the Laibach video Opus Dei (Life is Life), 1987, directed by Daniel Landin, published by Mute Records

When faced with such a video, and a live performance by Laibach that mirrors this same aesthetic, one does not know whether to laugh at the performance they are witnessing, or to be shocked by the overt identification with a totalitarian aesthetic. 22

Yet it is only in the continual replication of nationalist iconography that the totalitarian potential of that language can be revealed. And it is in the uncertainty as to how to respond to this language, and in the accompanying self-reflexivity, that the capacity for a critique of ideology exists.

Over-identification and The Castle

While much more could be written about Laibach and NSK, I wish now to return to The Castle . The concept of subversive affirmation, for which Laibach’s actions stand as a paradigmatic example, provides a useful framework for revisiting the film and unearthing its potential to operate as a critique of ideology. It goes without saying that in The Castle there is far more overt humour and irony than in the work of Laibach. The question of whether or not the film’s content should be taken seriously never arises, nor does the film question whether the state’s conduct is totalitarian in nature. Even if Laibach are mistaken in their positing of post-Tito Yugoslavia as such a totalitarian state, the belief nevertheless infuses their work, endowing it with a gravity arguably absent in a film like The Castle . Given this distinction, and The Castle ’s obviously comical nature, one might argue that there is no “over‑identification” in the film, and that only the Freudian reading of it offered earlier in this paper has currency.

However I wish to suggest, with specific reference to the unique Australian context – particularly in the aftermath of the 1996 election of John Howard’s Liberal Party to government – that over-identification and subversive affirmation are equally valid methods by which to deconstruct The Castle and its operation. As stated earlier, a large number of Australians genuinely identify with the Kerrigans; significantly, this reflects an Australian association with the underdog, and the figure of the “battler”. Crucially, the notion that the self-reliant individual constituted the backbone of Australian society was fostered by the Howard government that had just come to power when The Castle was released, and which would remain in office for eleven years thanks to the votes of working-class Australians termed “Howard’s Battlers”. Indeed, this reconstitution of the Australian as a “do-it-yourselfer” is reflected in the fact that The Castle was produced on a budget of only $750,000 AUD and filmed in a mere ten days. A low budget film that became a hit, it itself evidences the entrepreneurial spirit and self-sufficiency being championed at this time. In his examination of this period in Australian life, political scientist Don Aitken notes an increasing individualism taking hold in the country. He asserts that Australians

…have been advised, and are content, to settle for less, for a more individualistic view of society… we have lost a strong sense of what our country “stands for”, because that is a statement about “us” rather than about “me” 23 .

In The Castle , the Kerrigans are ultimately left to fend for themselves. Despite the incorporation of their neighbours into their struggle against the compulsory acquisition of their homes, there is an individualistic streak, as well as a degree of fortune, to their victory. They are the battlers “doing it tough” and their predicament reflects the change occurring in Australia during this period. Their helplessness is reflected by the fact that it is only the charitable intervention of Lawrence Hammill QC that saves the Kerrigans. As David Callahan writes:

Darryl Kerrigan succeeds through the system rather than against it, suggesting that it is only on the level of the personal that the system can be made to work; one can have no faith in civil mechanisms in the maintenance of civility 24 .

The Kerrigans’ slavish devotion to the Australian Dream, but ultimate vulnerability, reveals the absolute absurdity of the dismantling of Australia’s welfare state during this period – a support system which, as demonstrated, is so contingent upon private home ownership. Notwithstanding the Kerrigans’ success in court, by witnessing the family’s plight the film’s audience becomes conscious of their own comparable helplessness under neoliberalism. Responses of this nature are described by Arns and Sasse when they write:

… when speaking of subversive affirmation we are not dealing with critical distance but are confronted with a critique of aesthetic experience that – via identification – is about creating a physical/psychic experience of what is being criticised 25 .

The excess of ideology in The Castle operates to produce such an experience and a kind of subversive affirmation, with the viewer, despite how amusing they might find the Kerrigans, ultimately identifying with and relating to the precarity of their situation. Critically, by coming to realise the similarities they share – something made possible by the film’s excessive spotlighting of the “battler” figure – the viewer takes a critical first step in any attempt to resist the neoliberal turn that demands such self-reliance. Finally, in further support of a reading of The Castle as possessing a subversive quality, I wish to emphasise its conscious engagement with the contemporary political environment in Australia. During the film’s first courtroom scene, lawyer Dennis Denuto argues that the attempt to compulsorily acquire the Kerrigans’ home is in conflict with the “vibe” of the Constitution. In making this argument he cites as precedent 1992’s Mabo v Queensland (No. 2) , a landmark constitutional law case that rejected the doctrine of terra nullius , and in so doing recognised the existence and persistence of native title under common law. While this scene may be read as naïvely associating the struggles of the Kerrigans with those of Australia’s native population and their dispossession at the hands of their European colonisers, it also reflects an awareness and engagement with the Australian political landscape that supports a reading of the film as possessing a politically engaged, and indeed consciously subversive, edge.

While the popularity of The Castle may have blunted its subversive character, this very popularity is integral to the film’s political potential. The excess of ideology in the film allows viewers, particularly those in Australia, to perceive of their own position under neoliberalism, and develop an awareness of their construction as self-reliant “battlers”. However comic The Castle may be, its overt representation of Australia’s turn towards individualism operates as a necessary first step in any attempt to resist the neoliberal paradigm, and recover some sense of collectivity. It is also worth recognising that, even 21 years after its release, The Castle has not lost its relevance. As I write this paper, Australia’s ruling Liberal Party has changed its leader with the hope – amongst other things – that it will improve their prospects of re-election in 2019. In justifying the decision to depose a sitting Prime Minister – an increasingly regular occurrence over the past decade – one parliamentarian stated: “… [a new leader] will be able to reconnect with the Howard battlers [and] bring them back into the … fold 26 .” Not only are “Howard’s Battlers” as relevant as ever, but the importance of home ownership remains as fundamental to the constitution of Australian society, even if the purchase of a home is becoming increasingly unattainable for Australia’s younger generations. Given Australia’s increasingly bleak political outlook, now seems an ideal moment to revisit The Castle and rehabilitate its capacity to critique existing ideological structures, and, most importantly, to subvert their dominant rhetoric.

• This paper developed out of a seminar on cinema and ideology taken with Professor Pavle Levi at Stanford University, and I would like to thank him for his insightful feedback as I worked on a preliminary draft of the piece. ↩
• Mark Vaile, quoted in Lisa Milner, “Kenny: the evolution of the battler figure in Howard’s Australia,” Journal of Australian Studies 33, no. 2 (2009): p. 160. ↩
• See Isabel Hayes, “The Castle best represents Aussies,” The Sydney Morning Herald , 6 October 6 2010, http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/movies/the-castle-best-represents-aussies-20101006-1674q.html ; and “The Castle hero Darryl Kerrigan best represents Australians: survey,” The Australian , 6 October 2010, http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/the-castle-hero-darryl-kerrigan-represents-australians-best-survey/story-e6frg6n6-1225934896300 . ↩
• Mladen Dolar, cited in Alenka Zupančič, The Odd One In: On Comedy (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2008), p. 4. ↩
• See Louis Althusser, “Ideological State Apparatuses: Notes Towards an Investigation” in Lenin and Philosophy and other Essays , Ben Brewster, trans. (London: NLB, 1977), pp. 121-176. ↩
• Milner, “Kenny: the evolution of the battler figure in Howard’s Australia”: p. 157. During this era, social commentator Hugh Mackay also reflected that: ‘It’s really a case of leave it to (Prime Minister) Howard, leave it to the Government. See Hugh Mackay, quoted in Michelle Grattan, “Following Howard’s way to victory in war for a nation’s soul,” The Age , 21 February 2006, p. 1. ↩
• See David Hayward, “The Great Australian Dream reconsidered,” Housing Studies 1 (1986): p. 213; Jim Kemeny, The Myth of Home Ownership (London: Routledge Kegan Paul, 1981); and Ian Winter, The Radical Home Owner: Housing Tenure and Social Change (Basel: Gordon and Breach, 1994). ↩
• Steven C. Bourassa, Alastair W. Greig and Patrick N. Troy, “The limits of housing policy: home ownership in Australia,” Housing Studies 10, no. 1 (1995): p. 83. ↩
• Max Neutze and Hal L. Kendig, “Achievement of home ownership among post-war Australian cohorts,” Housing Studies 6, no. 1 (1991): p. 8. ↩
• Francis G. Castles, “The institutional design of the Australian Welfare State,” International Social Security Review 50, no. 2 (1997), pp. 33-4. ↩
• See Australian Institute of Family Studies, Social polarisation and housing careers: Exploring the interrelationship of labour and housing markets in Australia (Working Paper No. 13 – March 1998). ↩
• Francis G. Castles, The Working Class and Welfare (Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1985). ↩
• Sigmund Freud, “Humour,” in The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 9 (1928): p. 3. ↩
• Freud, “Humour”: pp. 3-4. ↩
• See Inke Arns and Sylvia Sasse, “Subversive Affirmation: On Mimesis as a Strategy of Resistance,” in East Art Map: Contemporary Art and Eastern Europe , IRWIN, ed. (Cambridge; London: MIT Press; Afterall, 2006), pp. 444-55. ↩
• Arns and Sasse, “Subversive Affirmation: On Mimesis as a Strategy of Resistance,” p. 445. ↩
• Alexei Monroe, Interrogation Machine: Laibach and NSK (Cambridge, Massachussets; London, England: The MIT Press, 2005), p. 3. ↩
• Marina Gržinić, “Neue Slowenische Kunst,” in Impossible Histories: Historical Avant-Gardes, Neo-Avant-Gardes, and Post-Avant-Gardes in Yugoslavia, 1918-1991 , Dubravka Djurić and Miško Šuvaković, eds.  (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2003), p. 249. ↩
• Arns and Sasse, “Subversive Affirmation: On Mimesis as a Strategy of Resistance,” p. 448. ↩
• Anthony Gardner, Politically Unbecoming: Postsocialist Art Against Democracy (Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England: The MIT Press, 2015), p. 120. ↩
• Monroe, Interrogation Machine , p. 231. ↩
• Don Aitken, “What Was It For?: The Inaugural Don Aitken Lecture,” University of Canberra, 25 November 2005. ↩
• David Callahan, “His Natural Whiteness: Modes of Ethnic Presence and Absence in Some Recent Australian Films,” in Australian Cinema in the 1990s , Ian Craven, ed. (London; Portland: Frank Cass, 2001), p. 105. ↩
• Arns and Sasse, “Subversive Affirmation: On Mimesis as a Strategy of Resistance,” p. 446. ↩
• Mathias Cormann, quoted in “Scott Morrison sworn in as Australia’s 30th prime minister – politics live”, The Guardian , 24 August 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2018/aug/24/liberal-spill-malcolm-turnbull-peter-dutton-scott-morrison-liberal-spill-politics-parliament-live . ↩

'The Castle' - Module A - Language, Identity and Culture

This workshop offers practical ways into the 'Standard: Language, Identity and Culture' module and a fresh look at Sitch's The Castle. Course format: Online Presenter: Peita Mages Audience: Teachers teaching 'Language Identity & Culture’ wanting to expand their textual understanding & consider fresh approaches to teaching it. 5 professional development hours Pricing options Individual enrolment $285 + GST Team enrolment $1250 + GST FREE with subscription

Are you in NSW? If so, this is relevant for you

This course may contribute towards Elective PD hours. Visit https://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au for more details.

General Description

This workshop offers practical ways into the ‘Standard: Language, Identity and Culture’ module, including rubric breakdown. It further offers contextual insights (composer, social, historical) to situate your students in Sitch’s The Castle. Teaching and learning strategies and resources will be suggested to inform a smarter not harder approach in immersing students in the text.

Teachers teaching 'Language Identity & Culture’ wanting to expand their textual understanding & consider fresh approaches to teaching it.

Teaching Standards

2.1.2 Proficient Level - Know the content and how to teach it - Content and teaching strategies of the teaching area:  Apply knowledge of the content and teaching strategies of the teaching area to develop engaging teaching activities,

3.2.2 Proficient Level - Plan for and implement Effective Teaching and Learning - Plan, structure and sequence learning programs:  Plan and implement well-structured learning and teaching programs or lesson sequences that engage students and promote learning,

3.4.2 Proficient Level - Plan for and implement Effective Teaching and Learning - Select and use resources:  Select and/or create and use a range of resources, including ICT, to engage students in their learning

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HSC Standard English Module A: The Castle Sample Essay and Essay Analysis

Subject: English

Age range: 16+

Resource type: Other

Last updated

21 September 2021

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This is a three-part resource for students undertaking the NSW HSC Standard English Module A: Language, Identity, and Culture

A generic essay plan shows students how to compose an essay suitable for Stage 6, progressing them from the simpler PEEL/TEAL models of Stage 4 and 5.

A sample essay for the prescribed text, The Castle answers the 2019 HSC question:

Film relies on dialogue to create cultural tension. To what extent do you agree with this statement?

• There is also a second copy of the essay, marked up to show how it follows the plan, and with five short questions which require students to engage critically with the essay and its form.

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ENG 12: The Castle: Home

     Image: Creative Commons

Resources and Links

• The Castle: Cheat Sheet. (SBS movies)
• The Castle: rewatching classic Australian films
• National identity
• Measuring the cultural value of Australia's screen sector.
• The Castle best represents Aussies.
• The Castle isn't a tribute to Aussie battlers
• Why are culture and identity important?
• The crisis of identity in Australia
• My Australia: How it has changed (2013)
• National identity: how fear of foreigners shapes us.
• Wikipedia article: Battler (Underdog)
• Families and cultural diversity in Australia

Once logged in to Clickview, see the attached Study Guide in the Chapters and resources section.

Module A: Language identity and culture. (From the NESA English Standard Stage 6 website)

Language has the power to both reflect and shape individual and collective identity. In this module, students consider how their responses to written, spoken, audio and visual texts can shape their self-perception. They also consider the impact texts have on shaping a sense of identity for individuals and/or communities.

Through their responding and composing students deepen their understanding of how language can be used to affirm, ignore, reveal, challenge or disrupt prevailing assumptions and beliefs about themselves, individuals and cultural groups.

Students study one prescribed text in detail, as well as a range of textual material to explore, analyse and assess the ways in which meaning about individual and community identity, as well as cultural perspectives, is shaped in and through texts. They investigate how textual forms and conventions, as well as language structures and features, are used to communicate information, ideas, values and attitudes which inform and influence perceptions of ourselves and other people and various cultural perspectives.

Through reading, viewing and listening, students analyse, assess and critique the specific language features and form of texts. In their responding and composing students develop increasingly complex arguments and express their ideas clearly and cohesively using appropriate register, structure and modality.

Students also experiment with language and form to compose imaginative texts that explore representations of identity and culture, including their own.

Students draft, appraise and refine their own texts, applying the conventions of syntax, spelling and grammar appropriately and for particular effects.

• Last Updated: Mar 15, 2021 11:34 AM
• URL: https://libguides.brigidine.nsw.edu.au/castle

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The Castle - Quotes and Analysis

Hello all, in this blog post we will be exploring Rob Sitch’s 1997 film ‘The Castle’ and its relation to the Standard English Module A: Language, Identity and Culture.

Let’s jump into the topic sentence:

Sitch utilises the narration of Dale, the protagonist Darryl’s son, and his distinct ‘Aussie’ vernacular to voice his thoughts in appreciation of his father and family. This distinct colloquial language features prevalent in the early stages of the film places the audience immediately in the context and setting of the Kerrigan home, a working class family living in the fictitious neighbourhood of Highview Crescent and provides a snapshot of ordinary Aussies with oversized, ‘larrikin’ personalities.

Remember to always attempt to connect each sentence , i.e. there must be a distinct flow between each sentence .

Darryl is immediately established as the central figure to the film, through his son’s narration, ‘Not Dad. He reckons power lines are a reminder of man’s ability to generate electricity. He’s always saying great things like that.’ The distinct Australian language is coupled with the low angle shot of Darryl hosing the garden, where the camera work and lighting is utilised to bathe Darryl in a positive ‘light’ emphasising not only Dale’s but the family’s appreciation for their father.

LINK to Topic Sentence and Question : Remember to utilise the key words of the question in your analysis...!

Furthermore, this uniquely Australian family identity is also displayed during the dinner scene, the traditional family setting of a dinner table is used with the distinct characterisation of Darryl’s sons. Their attire is simple and resembles Darryl while their haircuts are recognisable working class ‘mullets.’ Yet, this simplicity paves a unique and distinct family bond, conveyed through the voice-over, “Dad had a way of making everyone feel special.” This voice-over is reinforced with visuals of Darryl individually praising family members throughout dinner, specifically through the dialogue, “Go on, tell them, tell them…Dale dug a hole.” The mid shot portrays their elated facial expressions and body language as he sportingly ‘punches’ Dale.

Again, be sure to finish with a linking sentence and be sure to use the key terms of the question throughout the paragraph in order to engage with and answer the question!

*Please note that while this information is a great starting point for these texts, relying solely on the information in this post will not be enough to get a result in the top bands.

• The Castle Sitch Rob Sitch Module B Language Culture Identity Module A: Language Identity and Culture

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2 Language, Identity, and Culture: Multiple Identity-Based Perspectives

Stella Ting-Toomey is a Professor of Human Communication Studies at California State University, Fullerton.

Department of Human Communication Studies California State University at Fullerton Fullerton, CA 92834 USA

• Published: 01 April 2014
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Drawing from the intercultural and intergroup communication research literature, the objective of this chapter is to unpack the relationship among language, identity, and culture from multiple identity-based frameworks. Three theoretical frameworks—identity negotiation theory, intergroup communication accommodation theory, and face-negotiation theory—are used to illuminate the interdependent relationship between sociocultural membership issues and language/verbal interaction styles. Overall, a process competence perspective to the understanding of language, identity, and culture is emphasized. An intercultural-intergroup process competence perspective contains two key ideas: being super-mindful of the symbolic message exchange process between the two intercultural communicators, and being super-mindful in understanding the sociocultural identity dynamics in language/verbal style enactment in a multilayered cultural system. Throughout the chapter, ample examples are used to illustrate the dynamic interdependence among language variations, sociocultural memberships, and shifting cultural boundary encounter issues.

While language is the key to the heart of a culture, nonverbal communication is the heartbeat of a culture. Taken together as a package, individuals can become culturally mindful communicators by paying responsive attention to the use of language, verbal, and also nonverbal communication styles in particular cultural situations. Language is defined in this chapter as an arbitrary, symbolic system that labels and categorizes objects, events, groups, people, ideas, feelings, experiences, and many other phenomena. Language is also governed by the multilayered rules developed by members of a particular sociocultural community.

In our everyday interaction, we use language to communicate, to agree or disagree with others, to make or deny requests, and to assert or negotiate our multiple identities. Language represents a significant identity maker. Identity is conceptualized as having multiple social identity, relational role, and personal identity facets ( Tajfel, 1978 ; Tajfel & Turner, 1979 ). Social (or socio-cultural) identities can include ethnic membership identity, social class identity, and professional role identity, to name a few examples. Relational role identities can include ingroup/outgroup membership identity issues to family role identity expectations ( Ting-Toomey, 1999 ). Personal identities can include any unique attributes that we associate with our individuated self in comparison to those of others.

In this chapter, we discuss various identity-based frameworks in the intercultural and intergroup communication domains to enrich our understanding of the intricate relationship between language variations and sociocultural membership communities. Individuals mostly acquired their composite identities through socio-cultural conditioning process, relational development events, individual lived experiences, and repeated communication practices with surrounding others. In every intercultural or intergroup encounter process, each individual’s multilayered identities such as group membership, relational role, and personal identity would come into negotiation prominence pending on the conversation topics, communication channels, relationship types, and situational frames. We need intercultural sensitive skills to negotiate these identity issues competently.

Drawing from the intercultural and intergroup communication research literature, the objective of this chapter is to unpack the relationship among language, identity, and culture from multiple identity-based frameworks. Since there are several chapters (e.g., Howard Giles, Anne Maass, James Pennebaker, and Klaus Fiedler) in this handbook that focus on and discuss the psychological processes of language use, this chapter will focus on the sociocultural identity dimensions that impact on language and verbal styles within a variety of cultural situations. In particular, three theoretical frameworks: identity negotiation theory, intergroup communication accommodation theory (CAT), and face-negotiation theory will be used to illuminate the interdependent relationship between sociocultural membership issues and language/verbal interaction styles. The intergroup CAT is used as a bridge that can enhance the identity negotiation theory and the face negotiation theory in furthering our understanding of the intersections of various identity-based issues and language choice.

The chapter is organized in five sections: First, a process competence lens to the understanding of language, verbal interaction, identity, and culture is introduced as a backdrop. Second, the identity negotiation theory and its accompanying assumptions will be explained. Third, the focal constructs of intergroup perspective and CAT and their relevance to language issues will be discussed and specific language issues in a distinctive diaspora cultural community, the Tibetan speech community, will be probed. Fourth, the face negotiation theory will be explained and the further connection between CAT and the culture-based facework behaviors will be proffered. Fifth, directions for future research concerning the intersection of language, verbal interaction, and sociocultural membership identity issues will be recommended.

Language, Verbal Interaction, and Identity: A Process Competence Lens

An intercultural process competence perspective emphasizes the mindful attention needed to understand the underlying identity issues that frame the use of language and verbal/nonverbal style variations in particular situations and in a particular identity membership community. A particular identity membership community can refer to an immigrant group, a diaspora group, a co-culture ethnic group, or a dominant-mainstream group. A process competence lens could shed light on the important role of sociocultural identity dimensions that shape strategic verbal and nonverbal communication accommodation process on the macro-level (e.g., cultural ideologies’ influence), exo-level (e.g., institutional policies’ influence), meso-level (e.g., community values’ influence), and micro-level (e.g., individual values) interactions ( Ting-Toomey & Oetzel, 2013 ).

An intercultural process competence lens contains two key ideas: (1) being super-mindful of the symbolic message exchange process and coordinated meaning construction process via the use of appropriate, effective, and adaptive verbal and nonverbal communication styles, and (2) being super-mindful in understanding more deeply the sociocultural identity and personal identity issues in conjunction with the role of language usage in a particular cultural system. We will explicate these two ideas in the following discussion and a follow-up elaboration on the second idea when discussing the identity negotiation theory, communication accommodation theory, and face negotiation theory.

A Behavioral Process Awareness Viewpoint

In discussing intercultural communication competence in general, Ting-Toomey (2009) argues that the criteria of communication appropriateness, effectiveness, and adaptability can serve as evaluative yardsticks of whether an intercultural communicator has been perceived as behaving competently or incompetently in an interaction episode (see also, Spitzberg, Canary, & Cupach, 1994 ; Spitzberg & Changnon, 2009 ). The criterion of “communication appropriateness ” refers to the degree to which the exchanged verbal and nonverbal behaviors are regarded as proper and match the expectations generated by the insiders of the culture. To behave “properly” in any given cultural situation, competent communicators need to have the relevant value knowledge schema of the larger situational norms that guide the interaction episode. They also need to acquire the specific knowledge schema of what constitutes appropriate or inappropriate language usage, word choice, and verbal/nonverbal style rhythms that can achieve the desired outcome goal.

On the other hand, the criterion of “communication effectiveness” refers to the degree to which communicators achieve mutually shared meaning and integrative goal-related outcomes in an intercultural or intergroup interaction episode. More importantly, effectiveness and appropriateness criteria are positively interdependent. When one manages a problematic communication episode appropriately with proper language usage and with mutual-face sensitivity, the “good faith” proper behaviors can induce communication effectiveness. Likewise, when one promotes an effective mutual-interest goal-directed outcome, the conjoint interest goal direction can induce appropriate interaction behaviors from the other interactional party. Deardorff (2004) , in interviewing 23 scholars and trainers in the intercultural communication field, identifies the most preferred definition of intercultural competence as “the ability to communicate effectively and appropriately in intercultural situations based on one’s intercultural knowledge, skills and attitudes” (p. 249).

Last, the criterion of “communication adaptability” refers to our ability to change our interaction behaviors and goals to meet the specific needs of the situation. It implies mental, affective, and behavioral flexibility in dealing with the intercultural communication situation. It signals our attunement to the other party’s perspectives, interests, goals, and verbal/nonverbal communication approach. It also conjures willingness to modify our own behaviors and goals to adapt to the emergent communication situation. Communication adaptability connotes dynamic code-switching ability in a problematic interaction scene. Dynamic cross-cultural code switching refers to the intentional learning and moving between culturally ingrained systems of behavior in particular situation ( Molinsky, 2007 ).

An Identity Orientation Awareness Viewpoint

Individuals from contrasting cultural or group membership communities often bring with them different value patterns, perceptual biases, and interaction scripts that influence their interpretations of competent versus incompetent communication behavior in a particular situation. Sharpening the situated content knowledge and communication/language skills of the intercultural negotiators can enhance their pragmatic competencies. According to the identity negotiation theory ( Ting-Toomey, 1999 , 2005a ), culture-sensitive knowledge, mindfulness, and constructive communication skills constitute the key features of the intercultural identity competence components.

While incorporating “culture-sensitive knowledge,” for example, such as value content spectrums of individualism-collectivism and small-large power distance issues ( Hofstede, 2001 ; E. S. Kashima & Y. Kashima, 1998 ; Y. Kashima, E. S. Kashima, Kim, & Gelfand, 2006 ; Triandis, 1995 ; Ting-Toomey, 2010a ) or cultural tightness/looseness structural issues ( Gelfand et al., 2011 ; Kashima & Gelfand, 2012 ), communicators can learn to uncover the implicit “ethnocentric lenses” they use to evaluate the ‘bizarre or unfamiliar” behaviors in an intercultural interaction scene. Culture-sensitive knowledge also includes the importance of developing a keen sense of awareness of self-identity issues and other-identity issues in the communication process, and also the willingness to move beyond the actual communication encounter process and taking into consideration the larger immigrants’ acculturation identity change factors and host country’s institutional receptivity factors.

“Mindfulness,” from the intercultural competence framework, means the willingness to attend to one’s internal cultural and personal communication assumptions, cognitions, and emotions and, at the same time, becoming exquisitely attuned to the other’s communication assumptions, cognitions, and emotions ( Ting-Toomey, 1999 ). Mindfulness is about focused meta-cognition, meta-communication, and meta-sensation attunement work ( Ting-Toomey, 2010b , 2013 ; Siegel, 2007 ; see also, Ang, Van Dyne, & Tan, 2011 ). Being mindful of self-identity and other-identity complexity issues can serve as an intermediary link between the integration of “culture-sensitive knowledge” and the execution of “constructive communication skills.”

“Constructive communication skills” refer to our operational abilities to manage a communication situation flexibly via pragmatic verbal and nonverbal adaptive behaviors with an eye to contextual sensitivity. Thus, the development of an intercultural process competence lens includes the intentional integration of culture-sensitive and linguistic-sensitive knowledge, mindful self-reflexivity and other identity-reflectivity, and the enactment of constructive communication skills to connect and relate to culturally dissimilar others. Understanding the role of sociocultural identity membership issues is a major starting step in enhancing verbal and nonverbal interactional competence and developing optimal intercultural and intergroup communication performance.

Identity Negotiation Theory: A Boundary-Crossing Perspective

To develop pragmatic communication competence in intergroup contexts, individuals need to understand deeply sociocultural membership identity struggle issues and personal identity adaptations as they unfold in the communication process and the larger cultural system. In this section, we introduce a theoretical framework, the Identity Negotiation Theory (INT) ( Ting-Toomey, 1999 , 2005a ) to guide us systematically in connecting the relationship among language/verbal style, identity, and culture in the context of minority and immigrants’ acculturation process. In the next section, we forge connection between the Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT) (Gallois, Ogay, & Giles, 2005; Giles, Reid, & Harwood, 2010 ), and INT to further explain the critical role of appreciating language via an intergroup identity lens.

Identity Negotiation Theory: A Synopsis

By understanding how individuals define themselves and how others define them on multiple grounds, persons can communicate with culturally different others appropriately, effectively, and adaptively. Let us first take a look at the following case story ( Ting-Toomey & Chung, 2012 , p. 158) which involved Pauline, a University Assistant Dean and her encounter with a group of strangers in a posh restaurant on campus.

Mistaken Identity: Innocent or Guilty? I was having lunch at the university restaurant with my work colleagues when I glanced over at the other table. The table was beautifully decorated with rose petals and fancy packages. The women that were going to be seated were immaculately dressed. I could see the Couture, Chanel and Gucci. I was curious and walked over to their table. “Excuse me, your table is so beautiful. I was wondering what the special occasion was?” One woman smiled and replied, “We are celebrating friendship day. We do this every year. By the way, may I have a glass of ice tea, no cubes please?” I was totally stunned. “I am so sorry, I did not introduce myself. I am an Assistant Dean in the College of Arts and Sciences.” The White woman apologized and ended with, “I thought you were the Maître D—I mean, the Head Maître D.” As an African American woman who has worked on this campus for over a decade, I am still disappointed and somewhat dismayed, that after all of these years, color matters. It is a daily reminder that I am different…

In reviewing the “Mistaken Identity” real-life case story, it is obvious that multiple identity clashes come into play. The story involves ethnic/racial identity clash, particular identity lens interpretation, historical backdrop, professional identity issues, gender role expectations, and personal identity sentiments, and much more. It also provides us with a compelling argument for why understanding the unfamiliar other’s identity conception is so critical in promoting competent intercultural or intergroup communication. In an identity misalignment communication process, individuals can unintentionally or intentionally insult someone’s sense of social or personal identity self (see next section) as portrayed in the dialogue line in which the White woman ended with— “I thought you were the Maître D—I mean, the Head Maître D.” –thus, inflicting one more verbal insult to the emotional pain that Dean Pauline has just experienced.

According to Ting-Toomey’s (2005a) INT, human beings in all cultures desire identity respect in the communication process. However, what constitutes the proper way to show identity respect and consideration varies from one culture to the next. The INT perspective emphasizes particular identity domains in influencing individuals’ everyday interactions. To illustrate, for example, individuals acquire their sense of cultural/ethnic group membership images through their primary caretakers, peer associations, schools and media influence during their formative years. Furthermore, physical appearance, racial traits, skin color, language usage, self-appraisal, and other-perception factors all enter into the cultural identity construction equation.

The INT has been researched and applied primarily in immigrants’ acculturation contexts and intergroup majority-minority interaction contexts (see, for example, Collie, Kindoh, & Podisadlowski, 2010 ; Jackson, 1999 , 2002 ) to international adjustment and re-adjustment situations (see, for example, Hotta & Ting-Toomey, 2013 ; Molinksy, 2007 ; Onwumechili, Nwosu, Jackson, & James-Hughes, 2003). More recently, it has been applied to bicultural/biracial identity meaning construction and its impact on intergroup communication strategies in various daily situations ( Toomey, Dorjee, & Ting-Toomey, 2013 ).

Identity Negotiation Theory: Core Assumptions

The 2005 INT version consists of the following ten core assumptions, which explain the antecedent, process, and outcome components of intercultural identity-based communication competence:

The core dynamics of people’s group membership identities (e.g., cultural and ethnic memberships) and personal identities (e.g., unique attributes) are formed via symbolic communication with others.

Individuals in all cultures or ethnic groups have the basic motivation needs for identity security, inclusion, predictability, connection, and consistency on both group-based and person-based identity levels. However, too much emotional security will lead to tight ethnocentrism, and, on the converse side, too much emotional insecurity (or vulnerability) will lead to fear of outgroups or strangers. The same underlying principle applies to identity inclusion, predictability, connection, and consistency. Thus, an optimal range exists on the various identity negotiation dialectical spectrums.

Individuals tend to experience identity emotional security in a culturally familiar environment and experience identity emotional vulnerability in a culturally unfamiliar environment.

Individuals tend to feel included when their desired group membership identities are positively endorsed (e.g., in positive in-group contact situations) and experience differentiation when their desired group membership identities are stigmatized (e.g., in hostile out-group contact situations).

Persons tend to experience interaction predictability when communicating with culturally familiar others and interaction unpredictability when communicating with culturally unfamiliar others. Interaction predictability tends to lead to either further trust (i.e., within the optimal level) or rigidified stereotyped categories (i.e., beyond the optimal level). Constant interaction unpredictability tends to lead to either mistrust or haphazard expectancy surprises.

Persons tend to desire interpersonal connection via meaningful close relationships (e.g., in close friendship support situations) and experience identity autonomy when they experience relationship separations—meaningful intercultural-interpersonal relationships can create additional emotional security and trust in the cultural strangers.

Persons tend to experience identity consistency in repeated cultural routines in a familiar cultural environment and they tend to experience identity change (or to the extreme, identity chaos and turmoil) and transformation in a new or unfamiliar cultural environment.

Cultural-ethnic, personal, and situational variability dimensions influence the meanings, interpretations, and evaluations of these identity-related themes.

Competent identity-negotiation process emphasizes the importance of integrating the necessary intercultural identity-based knowledge, mindfulness, and interaction skills to communicate appropriately, effectively, and adaptively with culturally dissimilar others.

Satisfactory identity negotiation outcomes include the feeling of being understood, respected, and affirmatively valued.

Cultural and Ethnic Identity Intersecting Issues

In an accelerated multicultural/multiracial identity formation society—race, ethnicity, religion, social class, and culture—will become an increasingly integrative or fragmented focal point for identity negotiation and re-negotiation. Cultural identity salience can be defined as the emotional significance that members attach to their sense of belonging or affiliation with the larger majority culture (e.g., the larger Australian or U.S. culture). To illustrate, we can talk about the larger Australian or Brazilian cultural identity, or the larger U.S. cultural identity on the macro sociocultural membership analytical level. On the other hand, ethnic identity salience is linked closely with the intergroup boundary maintenance issue across generations (e.g., third-generation Cuban Americans in the U.S.). Ethnic identity salience can be defined as the subjective allegiance and loyalty to a group—large or small, socially dominant or subordinate, with which one has ancestral links. Ethnic identity can be sustained by shared objective characteristics such as shared language or religion. It is also a subjective sense of “ingroupness” whereby individuals perceive of themselves and each other as belonging to the same ingroup by shared historical and emotional ties. Thus, following Berry, Kim, and Boski’s (1987) 2 X 2 cultural-ethnic identity typological model, an immigrant’s identity can be classified as either an ethnic identity maintenance type (weak on cultural identity salience, strong on ethnic identity salience), a bicultural identity type (strong on cultural identity salience, and strong on ethnic identity salience), an assimilated identity type (strong on cultural identity salience, weak on ethnic identity salience), or a marginal identity type (weak on cultural identity salience, weak on ethnic identity salience). To practice pragmatic linguistic competence in an intercultural or intergroup communication situation, one has to move beyond looking at the racial physical traits or dialects/accents of the interactional partner, and learn to observe and listen deeply to the identity stories in the particular encounter scene.

Understanding various sociocultural membership identity issues especially in a pluralistic immigrant society is like beholding a multilayered, marble cake. Cultural-ethnic membership identity issues often inter-mingle or intersect with other group-based and personal-based identity issues to create an ongoing identity kaleidoscope that impacts on language enactment and nonverbal behavioral choices. Whether one is communicating with an ingroup or outgroup member may highly influence the linguistic code-switching process. In a nutshell, the INT assumes that human beings in all cultures desire both positive group-based and positive person-based identities in any type of communicative situation. How individuals can enhance identity understanding, respect, and mutual affirmative valuation via mindful verbal and nonverbal competence practice is the essential concern of this approach. Newly-arrived immigrants, minority members, and biracial/multiracial individuals also often need to learn to use creative and adaptive language code-switching practice to assert their complex identity shifts in the fluctuating intergroup encounter situations ( Collie et al., 2010 ; Toomey et al., 2013 ).

Identity Negotiation Complexity: An Intergroup Perspective

Intergroup perspective augments INT’s perspective on understanding the relationships among language, communication, identity, and sociocultural membership issues. Identity negotiation primarily takes place in intergroup and interpersonal communication contexts in everyday life. Intergroup perspective offers a rich theoretical extension to understand identity negotiation in various contexts.

Intergroup Backdrop: Two Identity Types

According to social identity theory ( Tajfel, 1978 ; Tajfel & Turner, 1979 ), every individual has two types of identity: social identity and personal identity. Social identity is based on his or her membership/s in a group or groups, and personal identity is based on individual idiosyncrasies and unique traits (see Giles, Reid, & Harwood, 2010 ). For example, while social identity or group role membership identity (e.g., Stella as a full professor, female, mother, and Chinese, and Tenzin as an assistant professor, male, unmarried, and Tibetan) shapes intergroup professional interactions, personal identity (e.g., Stella being an optimistic, creative person, and Tenzin being a considerate, empathetic person) shapes personalized relationship development interactions.

Mounting evidence, however, indicates how both social and personal identity can assert simultaneous effect on the evolving dynamics of communication between two or more communicators (see Giles et al., 2010 ) from distinctive identity groups. Theoretically, while these interactional contexts could be clearly distinguished, in actuality, intergroup and interpersonal communication processes fluctuate from one moment to the next—depending on the conjoint social identification and differentiation processes, the conversation topics, interactional goals, and critical interaction turning points that pervade in the ongoing conversation episode.

Given the focus of this chapter, we discuss in this section intriguing relationships between languages and social identity and proffer two theoretical models—one describing the relationship between bilingualism and linguistic identity, and the other understanding verbal/nonverbal convergence and divergence relating to intergroup and interpersonal encounters. While differentiating these two theoretical contexts, we also show how communicative situations can involve high intergroup salience and high interpersonal salience. These situations involve complex negotiation of social and personal identities as well as communication accommodation.

Language and Social Identity Issues

Language and communication issues received early attention from Tajfel and his colleagues (e.g., Bourhis, Giles, & Tajfel, 1973 ; Giles, 1978 ) even though social identity originated in the field of social psychology ( Tajfel, 1978 ; Tajfel & Turner, 1979 ). Giles and colleagues (see Giles and Rakic , this volume) produced substantial work on language, speech, and dialects as markers of social identity and their effect on intergroup relations (e.g., Giles, 1973 , 1978 ; Giles & Johnson, 1981 ; 1987 ). According to Ethnolinguistic Vitality Theory (EthnoVT) ( Giles, Bourhis, & Taylor, 1977 ; Giles, Taylor, & Bourhis, 1977 ), status, demographics, and institutional support not only influence intergroup relations between members of different language groups, but they also play a significant role in language maintenance.

In other words, group vitality—objective vitality or perceived vitality—impact intergroup interaction, particularly communication accommodation. Group vitality can be defined as the strength of a group measured along these dimensions: status, demographics, and institutional support. Status includes social and economic status, demographics include birth and death rates and immigration, and institutional support includes social, economic, and political support from local and central governments as well as other agencies. Group vitality provides a useful theoretical explication for why some languages thrive (e.g., English, Spanish, and Chinese) and many others die every day (e.g., Laghu of the Solomon Island and Old Kentish Sign Language ( Tobin, 2011 ).

Many intergroup scholars (e.g., Giles et al., 1977 ; Giles & Johnson, 1981 ; Sachdev & Bourhis, 1990 ) have suggested that languages, accents, and dialects can be the most salient dimensions of social identity, and “the literature on the centrality of language to group identity is substantial…” ( Sachdev & Bourhis, 2005 , p. 66). Tibetan diaspora in India, for example, presents an illustrative case. Most of the younger generation Tibetans educated in India could speak and write in multiple languages: Tibetan, English, and Hindi, but a recent study ( Dorjee, Giles & Barker, 2011 ) showed that in particular Tibetan language is regarded as a key dimension of the Tibetan social-cultural identity. Recognizing the centrality of Tibetan language to Tibetan identity and maintaining Tibetan culture (see Bernstorff & von Welck, 2004 a; Cabezon & Jackson, 1996 ; Dorjee, 2006 ; Gyatso, 1999 ; Shakabpa, 1967 ) are critical concerns in the ingroup Tibetan community. In recent years, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) in India has formulated two education policies.

One, CTA implemented Tibetan Education Policy that required most Tibetan schools in India and Nepal to teach all the modern subjects, except English, in Tibetan language from elementary level to middle school ( Dorjee & Giles, 2005 ). Two, CTA has initiated a new policy to design curriculum to teach Tibetan language to the Tibetan children in the Western diasporas (e.g., Tibetan diasporas in the U.S.A. and Canada) as a second language ( www.sherig.org ). This policy is aimed at bilingual education of the Tibetan children in the West so that they do not become linguistically assimilated into speaking just host languages. His Holiness the Dalai Lama, CTA, and most Tibetans emphasize the need to teach, speak, and maintain Tibetan language as a key dimension of Tibetan social-cultural identity from historical and cultural perspectives (see Cabezon & Jackson, 1996 ; Dorjee, 2013 ; Dorjee & Giles, 2009 ; Shakabpa, 1967 ; Stein, 1972 ).

It should be noted, however, that some groups (e.g., Arab Americans in the U.S., see Sawaie, 1986 ; Chinese Canadian students, see Park, Dion, & Dion, 1985 ; see also Edwards, 1985 ) actually may not attach the same importance to their language as Tibetans do. Interestingly, linguistic identity is not necessarily based on speaking the language fluently per se. Linguistic identity can be defined as “that part of an individual’s self-concept that derives from his (or her) knowledge of his (or her) membership in a language (added and italicized) group together with the value and emotional significance attached to that membership” ( Tajfel, 1978 , p. 63). In other words, there is no absolute requirement for individuals to speak their ethnic language, for example, to claim membership in that language group. It can be simply based on these two elements: linguistic knowledge recognition and the keen emotional attachment to that language.

A Relational Perspective on Multilingualism and Social Identity

More recently, intergroup scholars have explored the complex relationship among language, social identity, and communication issues (e.g., Clement, Shulman, & Rubenfeld, 2010 ; Kalbfleisch, 2010 ; Reid & Anderson, 2010 ; Sutton, 2010 ). Interestingly, Clement et al (2010) explored bilingual and multilingual issues between diversity and globalization. EthnoVT can provide distinctive understanding of different types of bilingualism such as balanced bilingualism (due to contextual factors favoring the equal status of each language and so on), additive bilingualism (situations favoring majority or minority group members to acquire a second language in addition to their native language), and subtractive bilingualism (situations pressuring minority group members to lose their ethnic/native language and assimilate swiftly to adopt the dominant/host language) ( Clement et al., 2010 ). Illustratively stated, Tibetan diasporas in India and the U.S. provide contrasting insights into bilingualism.

Due to institutional support from both the Central Government of India and the State Governments (see Dorjee, 2006 ), Tibetan settlers in India have been able to teach young Tibetans to speak and write in Tibetan, English, Hindi or Regional Indian Language (e.g., Kanada). Even though the ethnolinguistic vitality of the Tibetan diaspora in India cannot be compared at all to its host country’s ethnolinguistic vitality, Tibetan language and culture have thrived in India as compared to their status in their home environment—Tibet. Importantly, this case illustrates that minority group members can have balanced or additive bilingualism or even multilingualism (as in the case of Tibetan diaspora in India) provided their systematic language maintenance efforts are aided by host country’s institutional support. This means the minority group members’ acquiring additional second or third languages do not have to be necessarily classified as subtractive bilinguals as some intergroup studies have argued (see Clement et al, 2010 ).

On the other hand, the Tibetan diaspora in the U.S. does illustrate subtractive bilingualism. In the absence of institutional support and low group vitality (about 15,000 Tibetans here), Tibetan parents struggle to teach everything Tibetan—Tibetan traditions, beliefs, and values— and including the Tibetan language to their children. Many of the parents’ themselves, however, speak Tibetan poorly or not at all. This subtractive bilingualism may have dire social and cultural consequences such as the perceived disconnection between the Tibetan culture and language. Some studies (e.g., Rumbaut, 1994 ) suggest language proficiency determines individual’s social identity.

Based on recent intergroup language-based research studies, we can proffer a descriptive model reflecting the complex relationships between bilingualism and linguistic identity. We will use Tibetan diaspora to illustrate different scenarios. Scenario one can be additive bilinguals identifying strongly with their ethnic language identity. Dorjee, Giles, and Barker’s (2011) study indicated many of their participants rating high on their language competencies in Tibetan, English, and/or Hindi, but almost all of them strongly identified with Tibetan identity and Tibetan language as a key dimension of that identity. Scenario two can be subtractive bilinguals identifying with their ethnic heritage or native language identity. While this seems counterintuitive, many young Tibetans in the U.S.A., who either have difficulty speaking Tibetan or do not speak Tibetan due to assimilation into the American English language, tend to hold strong Tibetan ethnic identity including Tibetan language identity attachment. Kulyk (2011) writes, “Moreover, the identification with a language does not always result from its use; people can feel attached to a language they never speak and are hardly able to speak….This pertains in particular to languages of migrants, minorities or otherwise” (p. 629).

In other words, assimilated individuals in a host environment could still claim ethnic linguistic identity attachment. This implied that linguistic identity attachment is different from actual language use and language proficiency ( Libebkind, 1999 ). In the U.S., we find examples among various immigrants (e.g., Mexican Americans, Tibetan Americans) who may not speak their ethnic/native languages fluently but still claim strong ethnic linguistic identity awareness. Many Basque Americans who do not speak the Basque language claim Basque language identity on a group membership level ( Lasagabaster, 2008 ). Possibly, these bicultural U.S. Americans claiming their respective ethnic linguistic identity was informed by the perception that ethnic heritage languages are essential parts of their sociocultural identities as with Irish identity in Northern Ireland (see McMonagle, 2009 ). Lastly, it is also possible that bicultural individuals may not identify (e.g., Yiddish and English) with either of these languages as critical for two plausible reasons: (1) Language does not occupy a strong facet of their social identity, and/or (2) other facets of their ethnic or cultural community such as religious beliefs or rituals, customs, food, cultural artifacts, and distinctive values shape their sociocultural membership contents. While ethnic, racial, or religious group membership can be important to many individuals and offers a sense of meaning, belonging, and a source of pride to these individuals ( Verkuyten, 2010 ), other membership types and role identities (e.g., gender identity, age identity, or professional role) are important to some other individuals in particular situations (see Giles et al., 2010 ). Thus, to be a competent intergroup communicator, we need to be attuned to the individuals’ beliefs and values concerning their perceptions of the degree of interdependence between their cultural/ethnic identity issues and whether they acknowledge the vitality of their native language as part of their group membership identity, and also whether they are capable to code-switch into another language due to their immigration or diaspora experience.

Communication Accommodation Theory: Identity-Based Communicative Strategies

Given the above discussion concerning the relationships between languages and social identity, communication accommodation theory offers useful insight into identity negotiation and linguistic identity issues. In this section we provide a theoretical model that explicates communication convergence (accommodation) and communication divergence (non-accommodation) in interpersonal and intergroup encounters.

Communication accommodation theory (CAT) has a history of over 30 years (see Gallois, Ogay, & Giles, 2006 ), and it has primarily been applied to intergroup contexts including intercultural encounters ( Giles et al., 2010 ; Harwood & Giles, 2005 ). It has delineated the conditions under which communicative convergence and divergence occur in interpersonal and intergroup encounters as well as their social consequences ( Gallois et al., 2006 ; Shepard, Giles, & Le Poire, 2001 ). Convergence can be defined as communicatively accommodating or adjusting to each other’s interests or needs in the encounter. For example, matching each other’s language, accent, nonverbal expressions, and communication styles represent accommodative behaviors. In contrast, divergence can be defined as communicatively non-accommodating or distancing from each other’s interests or needs in the encounter. Specific examples include disengaging from the other via avoidance, silence, and nonverbal facial expression, and intentional dialect or language code switching to exclude the other. We can put the two types of identity: social identity and personal identity on a vertical bar and cross it with communicative convergence and divergence on a horizontal bar. These social identity-personal identity spectrum and convergence-divergence spectrum result in a dynamic model with four quadrants (see Figure 2.1 ). While the model clearly distinguishes intergroup and interpersonal communicative strategies, they can also manifest together in different degrees towards the center of the grid.

Intergroup identity negotiation: Linguistic convergence and divergence issues.

The first quadrant (Quadrant I) on the upper left hand corner represents intergroup membership convergence or accommodative behaviors based on intergroup social approval and other group-based motivations. According to CAT, individuals may initially orient themselves to each other based on group membership such as culture, race, sex, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, religion, professional role, to name a few. Intergroup convergence is observed in situations where both young and old adapt to each other’s communication style, where females and males accommodate to each other’s relational expectations, and members of interfaith code switch on topics of interest for the sake of intergroup harmony. Perhaps an excellent case of intergroup convergence is people around the world communicating with each other in English in face to face interaction as well as through social media such as facebook, twitter, skype, and email connection. The importance of sociocultural context in this encounter is high regardless of the shared medium of communication.

The second quadrant (Quadrant II) on the upper right hand corner represents intergroup membership divergence due to motivations such as social disapproval and to highlight social identity distinctiveness. Intergroup research provides evidence that members of different social groups use a wide range of non-accommodative strategies such as avoidance and dialect code-switching to distance themselves from each other. From a motivational point of view, while some group members seek positive social identity in intergroup setting, others like to preserve their group membership identity distinctiveness. Therefore, in situations where associating with certain group members undermine their positive social identity they could use divergence strategies to uphold their positive identity distinctiveness such as “Vegans Save Lives!” or “Don’t be Mean, Go Green!” to assert positive distinctiveness for their group.

The third quadrant (Quadrant III) on the bottom of the left hand corner represents personal identity or interpersonal communication convergence. According to CAT, individuals from different sociocultural backgrounds could have an initial orientation towards each other based on their personal identity. For example, individuals accommodate to each other’s needs based on dimensions such as personal appeals, physical attractiveness, liking, and perceived like-mindedness. These dimensions constitute their personal identity. Individuals from different social-cultural backgrounds form interpersonal relationships based upon interpersonal attraction. They accommodate to each other’s needs both verbally (such as code switch, discuss common interests, self-disclosure, and share personal stories) and nonverbally (such as reciprocal smiles and appropriate haptic/touch communication). Interpersonal approval and personal willingness to communicate drive interpersonal convergence in communication. Thus, the importance of individuals’ sociocultural background is minimized or not salient in this particular situation.

Finally, the fourth quadrant (Quadrant IV) on the bottom of the right hand corner represents interpersonal communication divergence. In this divergent communicative situation, individuals either do not seek relational approval for reasons such as personality disagreement, and/or have other competing needs which motivate them to use divergence or non-accommodative verbal and nonverbal styles. Choosing not to interact with some people using a variety of strategies such as code switching, not introducing themselves, pretending to answer nature’s call, and changing their seats are examples of interpersonal divergence. Basically, individuals may use any verbal and nonverbal symbols to communicate social distance in interpersonal encounters.

This model provides a meaningful heuristic insight into the distinction between interpersonal and intergroup communicative strategies. That said, we envision the fluidity of communication across the quadrants and that the communication process can be high or low on both intergroup and interpersonal dimensions ( Giles & Hewstone, 1982 ; Gudykunst & Lim, 1986 ). Intergroup convergence and divergence occur in situations where intergroup salience is high (e.g., police-civilian encounter or intergenerational encounter), but interpersonal salience is low. On the other hand, interpersonal convergence and divergence occur in situations where interpersonal salience is high (e.g., friendship encounters or intimate relationship interactions or twitter interactions), but intergroup salience is low. Of course, the framing or the interpretation of the actual intergroup or interpersonal encounter process is highly contingent on each communicator’s perceptions, evaluative schema, and cultural-racial embodied experiences. This four-quadrant model would assert a profound impact on the linguistic or dialect variations, nonverbal accommodation or non-accommodation postures that individual use in a variety of intergroup interaction situations. Perhaps negotiating identity and communicative interaction is most challenging in situations where both interpersonal salience and intergroup salience are high. For example, Jasmine, a Korean-Irish biracial American, 26, said the following about her White boyfriend:

My boyfriend who was White had all White friends and we would hang out together sometimes. Many of his friends would make slight racial remarks against Asians but in a joking way around me. While I took this as them trying to be funny, it actually really started to bother me. When I told my boyfriend that I did not like his friends making racial jokes against Asians he told me it was no big deal. One time one of his friends told him that since he was dating me he could now say he “had an Asian before” as if it was an accomplishment or a trophy should he ever break up with me. A while after that I broke up with him because he would not stand up for me, and, for hanging around such ignorant people. ( Toomey, Dorjee, & Ting-Toomey, 2013 , p. 123 )

The above reaction clearly indicates the identity challenges in an intimate-interpersonal dating relationship. Given the history of their interpersonal relationship, Jasmine told her boyfriend that she did not appreciate his friends making racial jokes about her Asian sociocultural background. Lacking sensitivity, her White boyfriend simply told her “…it was no big deal.” From an intergroup perspective, minority group members face such identity challenges in their relationship with majority group members and what Jasmine’s boyfriend said is a common reaction from someone in a dominant power-privileged position (see Orbe, 1998 ). Lastly, the situations in which both interpersonal and intergroup salience can be low include tight intragroup interaction and mindless interactions under the influence of alcohol and drugs. These insights from intergroup perspective along with group membership-based communication accommodation and face saving foci can provide further understanding concerning the intricate relationship among language, identity, and sociocultural membership issues.

Problematic Face-Negotiation Dynamics: Intercultural and Intergroup Perspectives

Intercultural face clash.

The following critical incident is an adapted story from Brislin, Cushner, Cherri, and Yong (1986 , pp. 157–158).

Who’s in Charge? The President of XYZ Golf Club Company asked Masako Takai, the 36-year old Chief Executive of the Marketing Division, and her staff (two male MBAs) to go to Japan and close an important contract deal with the Nippon Company. He thought his choice is especially effective as Masako (a third generation Japanese American from California) knows the industry well and could also speak fluent Japanese. Mr. Yamamoto, the 56-year old CEO of the Nippon Company was awaiting them in his office. As Masako and her staff were being introduced, she noticed a quizzical look on Mr. Yamamoto’s face and heard him mumbled “chief executive” to his assistant in an unsure manner. However, they both bowed politely to each other although Mr. Yamamoto felt that Masako should have bowed deeper since she looked so young. They proceeded to the conference room and a female staff poured them all tea. They then started their business talk. After Masako had presented the merits of the marketing strategy in Japanese, referring to notes provided by her staff, she asked Mr. Yamamoto what he thought. He responded by saying that he needed to discuss some things further with the head of her department. Masako explained that was why she was in Japan— to close the contract deal. Smiling politely, Mr. Yamamoto replied that Masako had done a good job of explaining the marketing campaign strategy, but that he wanted to talk things over with the person in charge. Beginning to be frustrated, Masako stated that she had complete authority from her company to sign the contract. At this point, Mr. Yamamoto appeared to be quite confused and glanced at his assistant. Continuing to smile politely, however, Mr. Yamamoto wanted to schedule another meeting with Masako and talk further. Masako was at a boiling point at that stage. Wasted time means wasted money. What went wrong here? Why did Mr. Yamamoto keep postponing signing the contract and wanting to schedule another meeting with Masako?

To analyze the story of “Who’s in Charge?’ and to answer the question of what went wrong—everything went wrong on a culture-level analysis. Mr. Yamamoto was interpreting the role of Masako as either a junior staff or a translator from the XYZ Golf Club Company. He was also not used to dealing with a young, female executive to represent a major firm. Furthermore, since Masako could speak Japanese fluently, Mr. Yamamoto did not take her seriously as an American representative from the U.S. firm. He also did not decode the term “Chief Executive” accurately early on, and he did not have faith that Masako could actually go ahead and sign the contract on behalf of her company. While Mr. Yamamoto came from a large power distance value orientation, Masako came from a small power distance value dimension.

Intercultural miscommunication often involves different face-saving and face-recouping behaviors. Face-saving and face-honoring behaviors are situated discourse. In order to practice competent facework communication in a problematic intercultural situation, the conflict face negotiation theory perspective may help to guide our understanding of the interdependent nature of communicative identity, language, and culture.

Face Negotiation Theory Perspective: A Synopsis

In the context of the conflict face negotiation theory (FNT), face refers to a claimed sense of desired social self-image in a relational or international setting ( Ting-Toomey 1988 , 2005b ). The roots of FNT were inspired by the writing of Goffman’s (1955 , 1959 , 1967 ) work on sociological facework, and Brown and Levinson’s (1987) discourse work on politeness theory. For a brief history that covers the origin and the evolution of the FNT, see Ting-Toomey (1994 , 2009c ). Briefly stated, in any problematic discourse situation, face loss occurs when we are being treated in such a way that our identity claims are being directly or indirectly challenged or ignored. Face loss can occur on the individual level, the group membership level, or both. Repeated face loss and face threat often lead to escalatory conflict spirals or an impasse in the conflict negotiation process. Face gain, in contrast, means an enhanced self-image, other-image, or both.

In fact, Spencer-Oatey (2005 ; van Meurs & Spencer-Oatey, 2010) proposes that the study of facework can be understood via four relational interaction categories: a rapport-enhancement orientation (a desire to strengthen or enhance harmonious relations between interlocutors), a rapport maintenance orientation (a desire to maintain or protect harmonious relations), a rapport-neglect orientation (a lack of concern for the quality of interpersonal relations perhaps because of a focus on the self), and a rapport-challenge orientation (a desire to challenge or hamper harmonious relations between the interlocutors). In particular, when a second language is involved in the facework clash process, the tone of voice, the nonverbal nuances, the situated linguistic codes, and the conflict assumptions that are being enacted in the social disagreement episode can further derail the interaction process.

The FNT was developed as a response to the Western-biased perspective in the study of conflict communication styles. In response to the heavy reliance on the individualistic Western assumptions in framing various conflict approaches, Ting-Toomey (1988) developed a cross-cultural conflict theory, namely, the conflict face negotiation theory (FNT). The conflict FNT included an emphasis on a collectivistic, Asian-orientation perspective to the understanding of intercultural conflict and was intended to expand the theorizing process of existing, individualistic Western-based conflict approaches ( Ting- Toomey & Kurogi, 1998 ).

In sum, Ting- Toomey’s (2005a) conflict face negotiation theory assumes that (a) people in all cultures try to maintain and negotiate face in all communication situations; (b) the concept of face is especially problematic in emotionally threatening or identity-vulnerable situations when the situated identities of the communicators are called into question; (c) the cultural value spectrums of individualism-collectivism ( Ting-Toomey, 2010 ; Triandis, 1995 , 2002 ) and small-large power distance ( Hofstede, 2001 ; House, Hanges, and Javidan et al ., 2004 ) shape facework concerns and styles; (d) individualism and collectivism value patterns shape members’ preferences for self-oriented facework versus other-oriented facework; (e) small and large power distance value patterns shape members’ preferences for horizontal-based facework versus vertical-based facework; (f) the value dimensions, in conjunction with individual, relational, and situational factors, influence the use of particular facework behaviors in particular cultural scenes; and (g) intercultural facework competence refers to the optimal integration of knowledge, mindfulness, and communication skills in managing vulnerable identity-based conflict situations appropriately, effectively, and adaptively.

Self-face concern is the protective concern for one’s own identity image when one’s own face is threatened in the conflict episode. Other-face concern is the concern for accommodating the other conflict party’s identity image in the conflict situation. Mutual-face concern is the concern for both parties’ images and the image of the relationship. Whether we choose to engage in self-face protection or mutual-face protection often depends on our ingrained cultural socialization process, individual trait tendencies, and embedded situational factors.

More specifically, for example, in a direct empirical test of the theory by Oetzel and Ting-Toomey (2003) , the research program tested the underlying assumption of the FN conflict theory that face is an explanatory mechanism for cultural membership’s influence on conflict behavior. A questionnaire was administered to 768 participants in four national cultures: China, Germany, Japan, and the U.S. in their respective languages asking them to recall and describe a recent interpersonal conflict. The major results of the study are as follows: First, cultural individualism-collectivism had direct effects on conflict styles, as well as mediated effects through self-construal and face concerns. Second, self-face concern was associated positively with dominating style and other-face concern was associated positively with avoiding and integrating styles. Third, German respondents reported the frequent use of direct-confrontational facework strategies; Japanese reported the use of different pretending and accommodating strategies and minimize the severity of the conflict situation; Chinese engaged in a variety of avoiding, accommodating, passive aggressive, and third-party appeals’ tactics; and U.S. Americans reported the use of upfront expression of feelings and remaining calm as conflict facework tactics.

Within the pluralistic U.S. sample, multiethnic research by Ting-Toomey and co-researchers (2000) has also uncovered distinctive conflict interaction styles in relationship to particular ethnic identity salience issues. While previous research studies have focused on testing the relationship between individualism-collectivism value dimensions and facework strategies, recent research effort has focused on examining the relationship between small/large power distance values and particular facework practice in the workplace ( Merkin & Ramadan, 2010 ). Beyond broad-based cultural value pattern dimensions, individuals do develop their unique personality attributes due to distinctive family socialization processes and particular lived experiences.

The term, “self-construal,” was coined by Hazel Markus and Shinobu Kitayama (1991) , and is concerned with one’s personalized self-image as emphasizing either an independent or an interdependent self. In individualistic cultural communities, there may be more situations that evoke the need for independent-based actions. In collectivistic communities, there may be more situations that demand the sensitivity for interdependent-based decisions.

The manner in which individuals conceive of their self-images should have a profound influence on the expectancies of what constitute appropriate and effective responses in diverse facework situations. Both dimensions of self also exist within each individual, regardless of cultural membership identity ( Ting-Toomey, Oetzel, & Yee-Jung, 2001 ). For example, Oetzel and Ting-Toomey (2003) and Oetzel, Garcia, and Ting-Toomey (2008) found that independent self-construal is associated positively with self-face concern and the use of dominating/competing conflict strategies. Interdependent self-construal, on the other hand, is associated positively with other-face concern and the use of avoiding and integrating conflict tactics. It would appear that independent self-construal fosters the use of upfront and low-context demanding interaction responses, while interdependent self-construal emphasizes circumspective and high-context yielding interaction patterns.

Two other possible factors that moderate the activation of an independent versus an interdependent self are situational role appraisal and ingroup/outgroup distance factors. Situational role appraisal factors can include the degree of formality of the conflict setting, the interaction climate of the situation, the role relationship between the conflict participants, and the perceived goals of the facework negotiation process. To illustrate, the role appraisal process can include an assessment of the role expectancies between the conflict parties such as professional role identities and other salient group membership and personal identity concerns.

For example, Merkin (2006 ; see also, Merkin & Ramadan, 2010 ) has integrated small/large power distance value dimension to the individualism-collectivism value dimension in explaining face-threatening response messages and conflict styles in multiple cultures. She found that high-status individuals from large power distance cultures tend to use both direct and indirect facework strategies to deal with face-threatening situations—depending on whether they were delivering positive or negative messages. Thus, an accurate assessment of the culture-based situational factors that frame facework strategy usage can be critical in promoting competent conflict management outcome. Integrating the intergroup perspective with the face-negotiation theoretical frame can yield additional insights among identity, face-sensitive concern, and sociocultural membership issues.

Intergroup Face Negotiation Perspective

According to social identity theory, social categories (group memberships) are mechanisms by which individuals relate to each other ( Tajfel & Turner, 1979 ). Even in casual conversations when social identity (group membership) of any conversational partner becomes salient it changes the dynamics of conversations from interpersonal to intergroup interaction (see Giles et al, 2010 ). In this regard, individuals have to constantly negotiate intergroup boundary issues (the intertwined nature of personal and social identity) with others and even in close friendship setting. For example, Gideon, a Chinese/French American bicultural-biracial individual (Male, 25) articulated:

I feel like I have to introduce myself constantly to my friends based on my dual heritage, rather than other deep qualities I have. It is like people only see that mix when first meeting me and they do not really want to take the time to understand the real, inner me. I have to talk about all the cultural background things before we can have a further, deeper discussion. It can get annoying and frustrating at times but I sort of understand why people or even my friends are in a way “fascinated” by it. ( Toomey et al., 2013 , p. 122).

The above statements clearly reflect the salience of social identity/group membership and its impact on communication with others. Notably, this particular bicultural-biracial individual struggles with group membership-based face negotiation—his claim to positive image in the context of social interaction. Importantly, his face and facework are based on social categorization or group membership. Notably, he could not simply bypassed his group membership in encounters because others including his friends de-individualize him with ascribed social identity based on his mixed-feature appearance.

In essence, traditional intergroup scholars have not paid much attention to face negotiation and the relationship between group membership-based facework and communication convergence/divergence issues ( Harwood & Giles, 2005 ). These integrative theoretical concepts can enrich intergroup understanding of identity, language/verbal styles, and communication issues. FNT explicates three types of face concern—self-face concern, other-face concern, and mutual face concern to manage identity-sensitive communication issues in a variety of problematic interactional situations within and across cultures.

From an intergroup perspective, there could be four group membership face concerns: ingroup membership face concern (IGMFC), outgroup membership face concern (OGMFC), intergroup membership face concern (ITMFC), and community membership face concern (CMMFC). IGMFC is the degree of protective concern for the positive communicative image of one’s own ingroup especially when that group-based image is threatened in social interaction. OGMFC is the degree of concern for accommodating the outgroup members’ communicative image in social interaction from being further insulted or challenged. ITMFC is the degree of mutual back-and-forth diplomacy concern for preserving the positive images of both ingroup and outgroup in social interaction. Lastly, CMMFC is the degree of face-identity concern about the larger world stage’s reaction or the surrounding eyewitness community’s reaction. Importantly, these face concerns can provide an explanation for why group members use different accommodative or divergent strategies in international or intergroup facework negotiation setting. These are intimately connected to understanding intergroup categorization process and enacting skillful facework diplomacy tactics.

Additionally, many relational distance factors are important in competent intergroup-intercultural facework discourse practice. One critical factor is recognizing power distance dominance-deference issues in facework negotiation process ( Holtgraves, 2009 ; see also, Holtgraves & Kashima, 2008 ). Another factor is having a good grasp of how a particular cultural community defines in-group and out-group and what constitutes appropriate in-group versus out-group linguistic or verbal exchange processes. Take, for example, from the Japanese communication lens, Midooka (1990) , who categorized four groups of Japanese relationships, noted that the Japanese in-group consisting of kino-okenai-kankei and nakama and the Japanese out-group consisting of najimi-no-tanin and muen-no-kankei .

Kino-okenai-kankei (“intimate ingroups”) consists of very intimate or equal-status relationships in which communication is causal, open, and direct. Examples of such relationships are best friends, family/siblings, close relatives, childhood buddies, and dating relationships. In these relationships, differences in age or seniority are superseded by intimacy, and no hierarchical rituals, especially in the “best friends” category, are heeded. Thus, in Japanese “best friends” conflict situations, the process can involve more heart-to-heart talks to direct conflict self-disclosure. Nakama (“familiar interactive ingroups”), on the other hand, are close-contact in-group relations, especially in terms of everyday familiarity, yet not so much as to override status differences. These typically include everyday colleagues in the same workplace, and here, maximum care must be taken to observe interpersonal rituals and preserving relational harmony even under stressful conflict condition. A certain level of decorum or formality is expected to be maintained in this particular relationship category.

On the other hand, najimi-no-tanin (“acquaintance interactive outgroups”) refers to a less intimate, acquaintance relationship, characterized more as an outgroup rather than as an ingroup relationship. For example, outgroup relationships in this instance could mean acquaintance colleagues in other universities or a friend of a close friend who needs a favor. While being tanin , communication behaviors toward this “familiar” out-group member would differ greatly depending on the perceived value or reward/cost appraisal process of the relationship. However, since Japan is considered as an overall group-oriented society, social ties have interlocking importance and wider interdependent implications from one spectrum of the society to the next ( Ting-Toomey & Takai, 2006 ). If the relationship poses a threat to one’s public face, one is still careful to observe appropriate interaction formality and diplomatic conflict rituals. Cautious formality is exercised in the tanin situation more so than the nakama situation—as one misstep can be costly and can ruin one’s reputation or face beyond just the out-group circle. Finally, muen-no-kankei (“stranger outgroups”) indicates a purely outgroup, stranger relationship, also referred to as aka-no-tanin . Since strangers are way beyond the bounds of accepted social or personalized ties, oftentimes, no form of considerate behavior needs to be extended between the stranger-pair as no preexisting emotional sentiments bind the two people together. Indifference can be part of the conflict ritual in this peripheral outgroup category.

In sum, intergroup identity factors and relational distance parameters have a strong impact on what constitute appropriate and effective communication styles and adaptive facework behaviors in particular situations and in different cultural communities. A culturally competent communicator would need to increase his or her awareness concerning self and other’s social and personal identity issues and the group membership facework issues that are being experienced and displayed in the social discourse situation. The next section will conclude with some suggested directions for future research in the areas of intergroup identity negotiation and intergroup facework negotiation.

Future Research Directions

Researching intergroup identity language issues.

In terms of testing the interdependent relationship among language, identity, and sociocultural membership issues, here are some suggestions along the lines of language and convergence/divergence issues, and language and intergroup communication competence or incompetence issues. In responding to the language and convergence/divergence issues, here are some researchable questions: Under what conditions do different sociocultural identity members seek linguistic convergence or divergence? How do they decode whether the other identity member is capable of code-switching in the intergroup identity negotiation process? What paralinguistic or micro-nonverbal signals do individuals exchange that they would actually interpret as identity approval or liking, or identity insulting or patronizing? How could we better study nonverbal nuances that create a strong impact on the language and verbal style variations in intergroup communication process?

In addressing the language and intergroup communication competence issues, here are some research questions that need some urgent attention: What are some appropriate and effective discourse strategies that can be used to instill super-ordinate identities and interdependent fates among separate cultural/ethnic group circles? What is the role of a competent translator or interpreter in the diplomatic multi-track peace-building process? How can bilingual or multilingual mediators create a secure “third space” through the artful use of language to promote mutual intergroup respect among diverse identity groups?

Researching Intergroup Face Negotiation Issues

The following two research areas hold promise and need future research attention: intergroup facework situations, and intergroup facework competence. The study of face-negotiation in everyday discourse would definitely benefit by examining the relationship among situations, face concerns, and facework verbal and nonverbal codes’ usage. Questions such as the following need more systematic research investigations: Under what specific situational conditions would intergroup communicators be more interested in intergroup mutual-face protection versus ingroup face protection? Under what identity threat conditions would intergroup negotiators be more concerned with mutual-face protection versus mutual-face annihilation? What do the language codes of honor, dignity, respect, insult, and vengeance in different speech communities sound like? How could these codes be translated with optimal fidelity in correspondence to the original speech community?

In connecting the relationship among language, verbal styles, and intergroup facework competence, here are some researchable directions: What particular facework strategies can intergroup members use to promote mutual face respect? How can bicultural-biracial identity members display optimal facework competence in intergroup communication settings? How do they make strategic choices to foster ingroup connection and solidarity with one group without alienating the other group? Do we need to develop particular linguistic process competence theory for each sociocultural group or can we engage in a cross-cultural and cross-situational theorizing process? Beyond communication appropriateness, effectiveness, and adaptability, what are other competence yardsticks we need to incorporate in order for intergroup communicators to reach optimal competence level? What does optimal communication competence look like from a language or verbal communication competence standpoint?

Conclusions

This chapter advocates the importance of understanding complex identity issues and language variation issues from the three theoretical frameworks of identity negotiation theory, intergroup perspective including communication accommodation theory, and face negotiation theory. International bilingual and multilingual researchers are needed to work more collaboratively and systematically to uncover the process competence perspective in the study of language, communication, and sociocultural membership identity issues.

From the narrative approach to the functional- quantitative approach, more theoretical and research efforts are needed for us to truly understand the multiplicity of identity voices and lenses of individuals from diverse sociocultural communities. Dynamic language communicators are individuals who practice culture-sensitive verbal and nonverbal styles and can code-switch fluidly with the strategic use of artful language enactment. At the same time that they adhere to the criteria of communication appropriateness and effectiveness in the intergroup interaction setting, they are also highly attuning to the identity dynamics of their fellow intergroup conversation partners.

In sum, competent communicators are highly creative individuals who can use the art of language and strategic communication styles to convey intergroup membership identity support. They can also display great linguistic reframing skills by de-polarizing intergroup membership tensions. They are the mindful communicators who have a secure and grounded sense of identity and, simultaneously, lending this sense of attunement to core identity issues that are implicitly or explicitly expressed by their intergroup conversation partners. Toward this end, in this chapter, we have unpacked and discussed the complex relationship among language variations, identity, and sociocultural membership from multiple identity-based perspectives. Drawing from the intercultural and intergroup communication literature, we are able to extend some of the existing identity-based frameworks forward and incorporating a wide-angle lens in exploring the intersecting paths of the ever fascinating phenomenon of language, identity, and culture.

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Module A – Language, Culture and Identity – One Night the Moon

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Module A – Language, Culture and Identity on the related text: One Night the Moon

Section I — Module A: Language, Identity and Culture Key terms/points:

• Language has the power to both reflect and shape individual and collective identity, how responses to written, spoken, audio and visual texts can shape their self-perception
• Language can be used to affirm, ignore, reveal, challenge or disrupt prevailing assumptions and beliefs about themselves, individuals and cultural groups
• Textual forms and conventions are used to communicate information, ideas, values and attitudes which inform and influence perceptions of ourselves and other people and various cultural perspectives
• Experiment with language and form to compose imaginative texts that explore representations of identity and culture

Theme: Racism and prejudice

Technique: A high angle shot

• Opening scene, where Albert’s daughter waves to emily, and emily waves back, only to have her mother force her hand down
• A high angle shot of Albert’s family is used to construct an image of someone insubstantial and inferior in comparison to that of Jim’s family who is an embodiment of superiority as indicated by society
• Also reveals the vulnerability of Albert’s family and their constant subjection to discrimination
• Reveals the learned behaviour of indirect forms of intolerance and racial discrimination from adults to children, and the challenging reality of unconscious doings of racism, ultimately addressed through the language form of camera shots
• Cultural perspectives: Entertains the notions that people of colour face discrimination and shadowed in societies

Technique: Mise-en-scene

• Mise-en-scene, another technique, utilises figure movement and expression in order to efficiently convey racism and prejudice
• The physical performances of characters like rose, uses the force of hand on emily to communicate the indifferences of the Indigenous people to their family and the supremacy their family upholds
• Mise-en-scene functions in order to express rose’ prejudicial thoughts and the influence she has on emily’s cognitive behaviour by denying her the right to do things as simple as wave, as an outcome of hostility towards Indigenous culture
• Cultural perspectives: Racial prejudice comes from learned behaviour and is not inherent, thus emitting the perspective that mannerisms can be toxic, especially those with negative connotations

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Chicano Identity: a Cultural Odyssey

This essay about Chicano identity explores its multifaceted nature, tracing its origins, evolution, and significance within American culture. It highlights how Chicano identity is more than a mere label, encompassing a complex blend of history, activism, and artistic expression. Through the lens of resilience and creativity, the essay illuminates the ongoing struggle for social justice and cultural pride within the Chicano community. It emphasizes the dynamic nature of Chicano identity, acknowledging its roots in resistance while also embracing its potential for inclusivity and diversity. Ultimately, the essay portrays Chicano identity as a powerful force that continues to shape and enrich the fabric of American society.

How it works

In the vast mosaic of American culture, one strand stands out for its vibrant hues and intricate patterns: Chicano identity. This term, like a phoenix rising from the ashes of historical oppression, embodies the resilience and richness of the Mexican-American experience. It’s not just a label; it’s a journey—a journey of self-discovery, resistance, and celebration.

At its essence, being Chicano is akin to being a cultural alchemist, blending the flavors of Mexican heritage with the rhythms of American life.

This fusion didn’t happen overnight; it was forged through centuries of migration, struggle, and adaptation. From the dusty plains of the Southwest to the bustling streets of urban barrios, Chicano identity took root and flourished, despite the odds stacked against it.

But what exactly does it mean to be Chicano? It’s more than just a checkbox on a census form or a stereotype in a Hollywood movie. Chicano identity is a tapestry woven from threads of history, language, and tradition—a tapestry that tells the story of resilience in the face of adversity. It’s about reclaiming a sense of belonging in a society that often marginalizes those who are different.

The roots of Chicano identity run deep, nourished by the soil of struggle and resistance. From the fields of California to the factories of the Midwest, Chicanos have fought for their rights and dignity, often against overwhelming odds. The legacy of figures like Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta serves as a reminder of the power of collective action and grassroots organizing in the face of injustice.

But Chicano identity is not just about protest and resistance; it’s also about creativity and expression. From the vibrant murals that adorn city walls to the soulful melodies of Chicano music, artistic expression has always been at the heart of Chicano culture. Artists like Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera paved the way for a new generation of Chicano artists who use their talents to explore themes of identity, community, and social justice.

In recent years, the landscape of Chicano identity has continued to evolve, shaped by changing demographics and shifting social norms. While some may view Chicano identity through a nostalgic lens, longing for a bygone era of activism and solidarity, others see it as a dynamic and fluid concept that encompasses a diverse array of experiences and perspectives. As the boundaries of Chicano identity expand to include voices from LGBTQ+ and indigenous communities, it becomes clear that the story of Chicano identity is far from over.

In conclusion, Chicano identity is a journey—an odyssey that spans generations and continents, weaving together the threads of history, culture, and activism. It’s a story of struggle and triumph, of resilience and resistance. And as we continue to navigate the complexities of identity and belonging in an ever-changing world, the story of Chicano identity serves as a beacon of hope and inspiration—a reminder that our differences are what make us strong, and that our shared humanity is what binds us together.

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PapersOwl.com. (2024). Chicano Identity: A Cultural Odyssey . [Online]. Available at: https://papersowl.com/examples/chicano-identity-a-cultural-odyssey/ [Accessed: 15 May. 2024]

"Chicano Identity: A Cultural Odyssey." PapersOwl.com, May 12, 2024. Accessed May 15, 2024. https://papersowl.com/examples/chicano-identity-a-cultural-odyssey/

"Chicano Identity: A Cultural Odyssey," PapersOwl.com , 12-May-2024. [Online]. Available: https://papersowl.com/examples/chicano-identity-a-cultural-odyssey/. [Accessed: 15-May-2024]

PapersOwl.com. (2024). Chicano Identity: A Cultural Odyssey . [Online]. Available at: https://papersowl.com/examples/chicano-identity-a-cultural-odyssey/ [Accessed: 15-May-2024]

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