ABSTRACT
One of the most important distinctions made in this book is that between categorial identity and practical identity—roughly, how one labels or categorizes oneself and how one engages in a practical sense with the world. The chapter begins by exploring the nature and implications of this difference, particularly for our connections with other people. It does so through an examination of a story by Lalita Pandit Hogan, treating her relationship to her birthplace and childhood home in Kashmir. Categorial identity is one aspect of one’s self-concept or, more broadly, self-object. Another key distinction, fundamental to understanding identity, is that between self and self-object. The second half of this chapter takes up the self-object, focusing in particular on one component, self-image. In connection with this, the chapter examines Christian Petzold’s film, Phoenix , and Alice Munro’s story, “Face.”
