Culture and Identity
The introduction to Culture and Identity implies that culture creates tensions and conflicts within and among us. We have discussed how those tensions and conflicts become normalized as cultural practices, and how those cultural practices become part of our identities. In the three stories we have read for this section–Going to Meet the Man, White Trash Primer, and The Bridegroom–I would like you to explore how cultural practices that are presented as normal are, on further analysis, worth examining as strange, or even grotesque or monstrous. Use as many of the texts as you like to expand on this topic, but remember that the goal is to look at examples of culture as the environment the promotes and justifies actions/attitudes that shape controversial elements of identity in individuals and community.
