Identity as a Polydimensional Self. On the Conception and Construction of Gender and Sexual Identity in Russia: A General Introduction for Slavists

Abstract

Dealing with questions of gender and sexual identity from a linguistic perspective requires an explicit and detailed examination of identity itself and of the variety of identity concepts. As one can see, some linguists ignore the variety of identities or, at least, the different identity concepts when they approach gender and queer linguistics questions. The current paper aims at providing a general basis for gender and queer linguistic research by offering a detailed and profound introduction to the concept of identity. Different identity concepts will be discussed and it will be shown that the knowledge on identity and identity concepts is essential for dealing with gender and queer linguistic topics. In the end, it will become clear that the prefabricated idea of man and woman as stable and universal categories is neither useful nor justified when one deals with the relation between language and identity