PUBLICATIONS
April 1999 Issue
The Geographical Review
April 1999, Vol. 89 (1), pp. 301-313
SPECIAL ISSUE - OCEANS CONNECT
HYDROGRAPHIES
Ian Baucom
Keywords: actualization and virtualization, exchange, liquidation and liquefaction, newness, survival.
ABSTRACT:
Drawing on the work of the theoretical biologist Humberto Maturana, I offer in this essay a way of conceptualizing the forms of identity that survive
the various death pronouncements of our postidentitarian moment. I associate the work of imagining those strange new forms of identity with what Frederic Jameson
calls "cognitive mapping," arguing that these "afteridentities" can emerge from a "hydrographic" charting of the fluid cultural territories of the modern and the
postmodern. In conclusion, I indicate how this approach may be of use in contemporary attempts to "map" the diasporic territories of the Black Atlantic.
Keywords: actualization and virtualization, exchange, liquidation and liquefaction, newness, survival.
ABSTRACT:
Drawing on the work of the theoretical biologist Humberto Maturana, I offer in this essay a way of conceptualizing the forms of identity that survive the various death pronouncements of our postidentitarian moment. I associate the work of imagining those strange new forms of identity with what Frederic Jameson calls "cognitive mapping," arguing that these "afteridentities" can emerge from a "hydrographic" charting of the fluid cultural territories of the modern and the postmodern. In conclusion, I indicate how this approach may be of use in contemporary attempts to "map" the diasporic territories of the Black Atlantic.