Discourse and identity

The article gives a brief overview of the modern approaches in studying identity, discourse and discursive identity. The author outlines the four main trends in studying discourse and identity: social constructionism (identity is a process), membership categorization analysis (people divide the society into “the members I know and want to be with” and “the members I do not know”), the anti-essentialist vision of the ‘self’ (identity is dynamic), and indexality (identity is discursive). Further on the author refers to the traditional approach to viewing identity and dwells upon a special role of language and text in constructing identity. Identity is not only manifested but is also formed in discourse through various social practices. The author concludes that identity has a situational nature which is constructed and revealed in interactions.