Identity, Fictitious History, And Personal Meaning

The development of personal identity and a sense of place are concepts that are influenced by abstract ideology such as nationalism, fictitious history, and personal meaning. Anderson talks about the nature of how nationalism shapes a person and a community in his book, Imagined Communities. According to my first blog entry, Anderson defines a nation as an â€Å"imagined political community—and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign.† He claims that its imaginary aspect is due to the fact that individuals of a nation will never meet the rest of the nation. I state how, â€Å"This limited circumstance only allows for a subjective interpretation of a community that is not based on factual knowledge.† It is intriguing how a concept that can extensively shape the individual is an abstract illusion of a community. It illustrates how although the development of an individual may be seen as a private, even insignificant affair—it is influenced by a num ber of variables that exist in society. One could argue that the development of the individual is more public than private, and could shape and influence the development of a society as well as vice versa. Similar to the development of personal identity, which is based in an abstract ideal, so is historical fiction. People can ignore and emphasize certain facts to form their personal identity, just as historical fiction does. The development of one’s personal identity and a sense of place is influenced by the amount of meaning aShow MoreRelatedThe Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston1722 Words   |  7 Pagescrafts a fictitious memoir of her girlhood among ghosts. The book’s classification as a memoir incited significant debate, and the authenticity of her representation of Chinese American culture was contested by Asian American scholars and authors. 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