Social Constructionist Identity Politics and Literary Studies

This fascinating interdisciplinary study presents a critique of social constructionist identity politics, which is distinguished from specific identity-based political positions, from within and with social constructionist commitments. The first half of the book focuses on the conceptual aspect of such politics with regard to the humanities generally. In particular, the logic of embodiment, the nuances of institutionalization, and recent developments in this area are discussed. Gupta also examines the institutionalization of social constructionist identity politics in literary studies, considering the role of self-announcements in critical writing, theory textbooks, and notions of canonicity.